A year ago, I decided to write a series of posts about big updates and changes in my life from the previous year. It was due in large part to the number of sweeping changes in my life, but it was also because the busy-ness that resulted from those sweeping changes resulted in my stepping away from both Facebook and the blog, leaving a lot of people in the dark about what was going on. It also didn’t help that it was Year 1 of COVID, which meant I wasn’t seeing or keeping in touch with most people. In December, when I returned to Facebook after my fall semester course was done, I hinted in a status update, cryptically of course, that I had had numerous sweeping changes in my life. Ironically, the two people that actually responded were people I was keeping in touch via video chat anyway. So, I had no news for them that they didn’t already know. But it was an opportunity to chat since over the course of the year our video calls had become less and less frequent. That, and it was the Christmas holiday season.
2021 was also a year of changes, less sweeping as the year before,
but certainly still significant. It feels strange to say that, because I know
it was and is true, but at the same time the changes don’t feel as significant.
To follow up on my previous year’s series: yes, I’m still connecting more with
the “new” people that entered my life the last couple years as compared with
before; yes, my love and I are still going strong (praise God!); yes, I still
go to the same church that I began going to last year; and yes, I’m still
Republican. I don’t foresee any of these things changing. Certainly not with
how more messed up this world is becoming at an exponential rate.
But 2021 also brought some new things, more subtle, but still just
as significant. Just like last year, there isn’t an end to the things that have
changed, nor to the things that are currently changing, nor to the things that
are going to change but still quite haven’t yet.
I still chuckle at how I framed the corresponding post last year
with songs from a secular Christmas ditty. That comes from still being fresh
off seven-plus years of doing music as a career, and all that it came with.
Moreover, I find myself amazed at how a job I held for five years (with Songs
by Heart), where most of this particular kind of music-making came from, and
where I got to play all types of music for nursing home residents is now three
jobs ago. It certainly puts things into perspective.
I was originally going to do a multi-post series like I did
last year. I’ve since had a change of heart. For reasons I won’t go into here,
after I wrote out most of the posts for each of the major themes, I didn’t feel
right posting them. I think, in part, it’s because not every year is created
equal. Not every year has updates or changes that require long storylines for
public consumption. And in fact, at least one of the storylines is still being
written. It’s never felt right for me to write out a story when it is still
incomplete.
Here is the summary of my 2021:
- I graduated from group therapy.
- I changed careers (and changed jobs twice).
- I was in the hospital for something that would’ve become life-threatening if I had continued to ignore it.
- I moved / I will move. It’s as complicated as it sounds, and it’s one of those aforementioned “incomplete storylines” so I best not say much about it right now.
- I caught COVID.
I’d like to talk a little bit about that last one, since it
wasn’t on the original list of “2021 in review” storylines, and it’s rather
recent. Considering that COVID has been named the “new disease of this era of
human history,” it’s worth talking about, inasmuch to make a point:
COVID is no joke. It’s very easily transmissible, and it
does make you sick. While I’m not an extrovert, I hate being cooped up (but I must
do it anyway), and the fact that I had it right during the Christmas season
makes it suck even more. But: it’s not a death sentence. And
while I thankfully had a mild case of it, I know others who have had more
severe cases, and yet they themselves made it out alive and well. Also, from
the stories I’ve heard, it is possible to be unvaccinated and still prevail. To
each their own on whether or not to receive the COVID vaccine, but something I’ve
been against is forcing, coercing, or scaring people into doing something or
receiving something against their will, or against their beliefs, or most
importantly against their independent research. Unfortunately, 2021 will be
remembered by many as the year that this coercion happened for so many people.
And for what? A disease that makes you sick (like every other sickness that has
ever existed) but doesn’t mean automatic death?
As far as I’m concerned, there is something at play here that
is much worse than COVID (having now had it): suppression of not only personal,
cherished beliefs but also of independent research and thought. I do have more
of an opinion on the matter than what I just expressed, but after what I’ve seen
regarding the forms of suppression that I have already seen occurring, I dare
not speak more. At this point, selective self-suppression is safer than suppression
from outside forces and sources. And I am now done with this topic.
Outside of my plan to move, I don’t know yet what 2022 will
have in store. I’m kind of hoping that things will calm down, at least for a
little bit. As a Christian who believes in the end times, I do recognize that
that may be too much to ask for, especially at this juncture in history. But I
still hope for some good things to happen. Hopefully, that won’t be too much to
ask.