Words of Barrett

…but not fast enough for me! And I’m fairly certain that millions of people around the world feel the same way. It’s been a daily struggle on so many fronts that I can’t actually pinpoint a specific event or date that things began to unravel. It’s like the frog in the water slowly boiling. Suddenly, it’s too much.

I’m one of the lucky folks who is quite comfortable staying home and social distancing. I have plenty of things to entertain me and keep me busy. An occasional trip to pick up a grocery order or prescription is not a hardship. Indeed, like many folks, I would love to see friends for lunch or go shopping or entertain, but that’s not happening, YET.

In a week, the year 2020 will pass into the history books and with it dozens of of opinion pieces analyzing the many dreadful cogs that made up the 2020 Wheel of Misfortune. Then, starting in January, we will inaugurate a new president and an entirely new team to run the government. The Covid vaccine will have reached thousands of people building more immunity from this deadly virus; and hopefully businesses will reopen.

And with hope and new energy, we can all try to bring this sinking ship back to some sense of normalcy. My belief is that with some sense of balance, people will begin to be less fearful and angry. Then the boiling point will drop and with a sense of safety we can once again remember we are neighbors, we are not enemies. We are all citizens of one of the greatest experiments in democracy.

We can achieve a new level of decency, compassion, understanding, and patience. We are so much stronger together than pitted against one another.

That was a bit more of a ramble than I intended. Please take as one opinion. But, if you can think about one small thing you can do to connect with other people, it will begin the change. I’m going to try to look every person I meet in the eye, and acknowledge them; say hello, please, thank you, or have a nice day.

It’s not much, but I want to re-connect after almost a year of feeling separated from everyone.

Writing my blog will be my first step.

Stay safe and count down to 2021!