With most of the events of the year retreating with the summer sun and the flowers in a year that has been maddening, frustrating, and fueled by an unrest that hasn’t been easily settled by most, the coming cold weather, gray skies and mist aren’t exactly welcomed this year. Sure, those who have the Halloween itch are dancing, preparing their costumes and their escape from reality, but will they manage to escape? This is the year of drive-by trick-or-treating, a turkey dinner for a small family instead of a full-blown get together, and Christmas is going to be hell to coordinate without paying tons of fees to the shipping companies. It’s not a case of being Debbie Downer, it’s just a honest focus on what this year has been about to this point and what the next year, whose shadow is only barely starting to peek around the corner, is going to bring. I think I speak for plenty of us when I say that we’re writing off 2020. But what about next year?
I get in a mood about this time of year. Either I’ve gotten sick, or I’m preparing to walk thirty miles around Las Vegas for my cap to the year before I start the winter wind-down. Twelve months ago, I was coming up with ideas for how my wife and I were going to celebrate our ten-year anniversary properly. As it sits, we have each other, our health, and the cats that we’ve been raising ever since I moved out to Kentucky, and for that alone I’m doing well and I’m grateful. And it’s because of positives like that, the bright aspects of life, that I needed to kick myself in the ass before someone took a deep dive into the DSM to see what “seasonal affective disorder” was all about. 2020 has been strange. But it’s been a shakeup that has worked well…a bit of chaos, a bit of re-arranging, can put things into perspective for you in a hurry. Would it be nice to have a night in Vegas? Sure. Would it be nice to be traveling all summer long? Sure. Instead, I’ve rebuilt my house, have started diving down a new path of learning, and I’m focusing my crafts harder than ever.
So take the lyrics of the song as you will. But that beat, that driving, explosive backbeat? That’s the marching beat forward to newer, better, more refined and sharpened ways. You are not broken until you allow yourself to break. Not ready to give up? Then fan the flames and get that fire going even harder than before.
