As we begin this New Year of 2022 it feels like, in the words of Yogi Berra, deja vu all over again.
Except it isn’t.
As contagious as Omicron is, and as discouraging and frustrating as we feel, science is making steady gains to keep us alive. The advances research is making in understanding Covid and its numerous variants, the vaccines that are proving effective and resilient, and the evolving ways to treat the infected are nothing short of stunning.
So amazing are these forward strides that perhaps the greatest irony of 2021 is that after more than 200,000 unvaccinated Americans have died from Covid, the science those still alive say they don’t trust just might save them from themselves.
Vaccine effectiveness is now preventing serious illness from the virus in most people to the point where the issue is no longer how many cases there are, but how many hospitalizations there are.
It is easy to forget that we began 2021 not knowing if the vaccines would do what they have done and also not sure if our lives would get back to anything close to normal.
Both have happened. The vaccines work and life has begun to feel some sense of normalcy again. What is more, the economy has made an incredible recovery that is helping everyone.
When Joe Biden took office the jobless rate was 6.2%. Today it is 4.2%. Over 4.1 million jobs have been created his first year, near record number for a single year in recent history.
The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill he signed into law in November will repair dangerous bridges and roads, and extend broadband to places that have never had it.
Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal report that U.S. economic output jumped more than 7% in the last three months of 2021. They estimate that overall growth for 2021 will turn out to be 6%, and predict that growth in 2022 will be in the 4% range, the highest, by the way, in decades.
Bloomberg’s Matthew went so far as to say that Joe Biden’s first 12 months were better than any president during the past 50 years.
So, no, entering 2022 is nothing like it was when we entered 2021, in spite of Omicron. And we have a President honest enough to tell us the truth as the pandemic carries over into the New Year.
The simple truth is, we begin 2022 with more reasons for hope than despair.
And yet, all is not well with us. We are frustrated that there is yet another virus variant, tired of Covid safety precautions, and angry with the people keeping the pandemic going by refusing to get vaccinated.
The question we face is one a friend asked her grandson when he was mad and upset: “How long do you want to keep feeling that way?”
It’s a question each of us should answer before 2022 goes any further.
The answer is not complicated. The way to stop feeling mad and upset, frustrated and discouraged, is to keep our heads, to use Rudyard Kipling’s words to his son.
Keeping our heads means we look at all sides of a problem, see the good as well as the bad, identify what we can do personally to cope with the circumstances, while regularly attending to our physical, mental, and spiritual needs.
That’s how we make the most of the time we have to live. The older you get the more you realize how precious time is.
Wasting it with anger and discouragement, resentment and bitterness, guilt and regrets, being out of control instead of in control, is one of the great mistakes we humans make.
Looking back over 2021 all the people I knew who died immediately come to mind, family members, friends, classmates, colleagues, famous people I admired, teachers who shared their knowledge and love for learning, even people I didn’t know who would have chosen to live longer had they had a choice.
I especially think of the over 880,00 thousand Americans who were the unfortunate ones who died from Covid, even those foolish or stubborn enough to refuse a vaccine that could have saved their lives.
How can I waste the time I have when so many people who died last year would have given anything to have more time?
That’s the question I ask myself when I am tempted to bitch and complain instead of doing something else with my time.
Not that bitching and complaining isn’t therapeutic. It is, but when it goes on it too long it stops helping and becomes a sign of disrespect for the people who have died who would trade places with me.
It’s even disrespectful of myself, actually.
So how long do I want to keep feeling the way I do when I am bemoaning my life or life in general?
If my head is on straight, I know the answer is, not long at all. I hope you can say the same thing.
Happy New Year!
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