For every thing that arose to give us much needed hope about the days to come - the aforementioned vaccine (THREE of them! Available in abundance so that everyone in this country who’s not a conspiracy-addled buffoon could get them! For free!), the resumption of live shows and plays (and sports! With people in the stands!), the ability to meet with friends and family (indoors! Without masks! After flying to new locations even!) Every time one of these popped up, the former pair quickly crept in to darken the sunshine or block it altogether. Part of the reason I think putting this proverbial elephant of a year together is so difficult is because those two pairs were in an ongoing battle with each other throughout the year, a disjointed disparity that ruined any sense of cohesion, progress, or peace being created. If last year’s themes were “ solace and comfort, respite and refrain,” this year’s were interruption and incompletion, balanced by hope and healing. ![]() (ie your description of the trunk may be just as valid as mine of the tusk, but neither of us have a clue what the f#$k it all means.) So while I feel confident about some of the things that happened this year - vaccines, promotions, resumptions, and relocations - I can’t quite put them together in a way that makes sense. The moral of the story is to recognize that one’s piece of the puzzle - while accurately understood and described - may be but a limited slice of the overall reality and that multiple things can be true at once. Things devolve into arguments as each is sure their take on things is correct and the others are lying or mistaken. There each man has a hold of a different part of the animal and accurately describes that component, but things fall apart when they try to put those pieces together. ![]() Sitting down to try and make sense of this past year as part of my annual exercise in reflection feels a bit like that old Indian adage about the blind men trying to describe the elephant.
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