Skip to main content

The Year of Disappointment



Where I live there is a section of town called Nye Beach. In the summertime it is a place packed with tourists. Even in the winter it is bustling with activity. The local residents have many reasons to spend time there: restaurants and pubs that cater to a wide variety of palates, the Performing Arts Center, parks and of course, the beach. Yesterday, I took the above photo, and it was a bit sobering.

I have been avoiding talking about the pandemic in my blog. I figured, there is enough talk and news about that for anyone. But then I realized that this is a seminal event in our history. The world is now a different place than it was a couple of months ago. I should talk about it as long as I don’t wallow in it.  In fact, I think I missed a bet by not journaling about this from the beginning. It would be interesting to look back on those journal entries at some point in the future and see what I was seeing and feeling. But I didn’t.

I am a fan of the University of Oregon’s basketball teams and this year both the men’s team and the women’s team won their respective Pac-12 championship games. The women in particular were ranked number 2 in the nation and seemed on a collision course with South Carolina for the national championship game. This seemed to be their year! A week later the tournament was cancelled. Of course, it was very disappointing to me, but then I reflected how devastating it must be to the players. My disappointment pales in comparison. Then, the players disappointment pales when compared to families who have lost loved ones to the virus. It makes you realize that you need to not worry about the small stuff. And most of the stuff we tend to worry about is small stuff.

2020 is the year of disappointment. Everyone, I don’t care who you are, has something to be disappointed about. School is over. Sports are over. Theater, movies, parties: not going to happen for a while. Even someone like me (who is fortunate not to have lost his job and is still working a more-or-less normal schedule, and has a spouse to keep me company) has things to be disappointed about. We can’t visit family and friends; we are mostly stuck at home. Some people have far greater disappointment and loss than me, but all are affected. No one in our country has gone through this without losing something, and some have lost everything.

Those of us who haven’t lost everything need to be mindful of what we have. We need to be grateful for the things that will keep us going, keep us motivated, keep us entertained and occupied. Be grateful you have a roof over your head; not everyone does. Be grateful if you have family; not everyone does. Be grateful for all the little things that make life bearable. This pandemic will last a while, but it won’t last forever. We all just need to bite the bullet, and do what needs to be done.

And remind ourselves to be grateful.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Child of the . . .

  What was it like to grow up as a child in the 90s? How about the 1940’s? Thinking about a child growing up in each different decade, conjures up images in my mind. But that is all they are: images. I was a child in the 1960’s. I can tell you what it felt like to be growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, but what it felt like to me is not what the history books remember. History will tell you the 60’s was about the Viet Nam War, civil rights, and the space race. The 70’s was Disco and Watergate. I remember being aware of all of those things, but to me this era was about finding time to play with my friends, something I probably share with a child of any decade. It was about navigating the social intricacies of school.   It was about the Beatles, Three Dog Night, The Moody Blues, The Animals, Jefferson Airplane. It was Bullwinkle, the Wonderful World of Color, and Ed Sullivan. There are things that a kid pays attention to that the grown-ups don’t. Then there are things the adults ...

Telephonicus domesticus

Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone from 1877 bears about as much similarity to the modern smart phone as an abacus bears to a PC or Mac. There are just about as many leaps in technology in both cases. It’s funny how a major jump in technology happens (like the actual invention of the phone). Then there are some refinements over a few years or decades until it gets to a useful stable form. Then it stays virtually the same for many years with only minor innovations. The telephone was virtually unchanged from sometime before I was born until I was about forty. Push-buttons were replacing the rotary dial, but that was about it. (Isn’t it interesting though that when we call someone, we still call it “dialing?” I have never seen a dial on a cell phone.) Cell phones were introduced and (once they became cheap enough) they changed the way we phone each other. New advancements followed soon after, texting and then smart phones. Personal computers were also becoming commonplace and wer...

Bureaucrats

  I am one of those nameless, faceless bureaucrats. Yes, that is my job. Though I actually have a name; I even am rumored to have a face. Bureau is the French word for desk, so you could say bureaucrats are “desk people.” In short, I work for the government. I sometimes have to deliver unpleasant news to a taxpayer. I sometimes have to tell them that the deed they recorded won’t work and they will have to record another one with corrections. Or we can’t process their deed until they pay their taxes. I can understand why some of these things upset people. The thing is, we don’t decide these things. It is not the bureaucrats that make the laws. The legislature writes the laws. We are required to follow the law.   If you are going to get mad at someone, get mad at the legislature. Or maybe get mad at the voters who voted the legislature in (That’s you, by the way). The same thing happens when the voters vote in a new district, or vote for a bond, or a new operating levy for an ...