Bye Bye 2020

2020 is history at midnight, 12/31/20.

What are you looking forward to in 2021? What have you missed most during the pandemic? Have there been any positive changes in your life?

Healing Crisis

I’ve been thinking of the novel corona virus pandemic as a healing crisis. Bear with me here. I’m not being Pollyanna. It’s been clear for a long time that the underpinnings of our economic system are unhealthy and failing a large majority of us. As I wrote in my 2020 calendar, approximately 140 million Americans live at or below the poverty line. Meanwhile, wealth, and the interest compounding on it, condenses at the very top of our society. I don’t know that capitalism per se is the problem. I think it could be exercised with conscience and care for the planet and all beings. But over time it has morphed into an engine of greed and accumulation, that in its extreme striving for more grasps nothing of real value to the heart. I’ve long imagined a thriving society where all basic needs are easily met, one where art-making of all … Read more

Do Not Despair

“The day may dawn when fair play, love for one’s fellow man, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth serene and triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair.” Winston Churchill, in his final address to the House of Commons, 1955 Quoted in Jon Meacham’s podcast, Hope Through History This morning I read a Facebook post by an acquaintance, and lately I’ve seen a fair number of similar ones on various social media sites. The authors were full of despair, feeling as if their individual efforts didn’t matter and have no impact. I’ve also heard this expressed in conversations with friends, and I feel it’s important to address. Lately we’re being given a boatload of opportunities to feel depressed about the current situation in our country. I’ll address the cultural and ecological ones elsewhere. Today … Read more