And So That Was Christmas

2021's ending was predictably unpredictable.

Good morning again, friends! It’s been way too long. I hope that you and your loved ones had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday season and that you charged up for what promises to be a very eventful calendar year.

Unfortunately, my holiday season was barely happy and certainly not healthy, as my home joined the millions of other homes in the United States that were infected with (what we assume was) the Omicron variant. We were fully vaccinated and boosted, but it didn’t matter. A breakthrough infection was just strong enough to strip away any motivation to do much beyond watch college bowl games and hydrate. Even as we turned the corner with negative tests and subsiding symptoms, it just didn’t feel right to be out and about.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to get inoculated. Despite inexplicable levels of vaccine hesitancy, I’m immensely privileged to live in a country where a jab is readily available. I can only imagine what a hefty middle-aged fella like myself – who smoked for 19 years and has had hypertension for ten would have fared without antibody protection. I had muscle and joint aches where I had no idea I had muscles or joints. (And I’m usually good about knowing exactly where every joint is at all times). My head often felt like it weighed more than my belly.

I had planned to send out some holiday wishes to all of you – the speed at which you signed up for this space was one of the top highlights of my 2021 (admittedly, a very low bar to clear). And the fatigue? Sweet Baby Jesus, the fatigue was off the charts. Simply thinking for more than 10 seconds was exhausting.

We sat for what seemed like an eternity in our respective lounges in the living room, waiting for the energy to retrieve the Instacart orders or put groceries away. I wanted to cry when it was time to swap out the jug for the water cooler. When it came time for bed, I sized up the stairs to the bedroom like Sir Edmund Hillary in the Himalayas.   

But the physical fatigue was a breeze compared to the emotional exhaustion of this virus. Today marks 658 days since I was last working in an office. The last time I worked in person with other humans that I’m not married to. I’m older. I’m grayer. And yes, despite countless efforts from every philosophy ever known to man, I’m jaded.

I still have a hard time believing that this is what we’ve come to. There’s no reason that the National Security Council’s pandemic response team should have been gutted in 2018. None. Presidents Bush and Obama worked very hard to bring this to fruition because they were learned men with professionals in their administration that knew it was only a matter of time before nature unleashed a viral fury on the planet.

It’s hard to accept the fact that the most prominent bully pulpit in America spent the first months of the spread trying to convince us that it would soon be gone. It’s even harder to comprehend how, after merely a few weeks in the spring of 2020, certain news outlets were pushing the dangerous theory that it was only the vulnerable that needed to protect themselves, and the rest of us could all get back to normal. If grandpa’s lungs had to fill up with fluid to save capitalism, there were tens of millions of Americans eagerly willing to sacrifice other peoples’ loved ones.

A year later, when a miraculous global collaboration led to the development of a vaccine against the disease, conservative media icons led a historic misinformation campaign against the vaccine, despite most of them having received the shot themselves. I can’t shake the suspicion that Fox News, OANN, and their social media followers’ sole objection to the shot is that it could lead to good economic news for President Biden. Remember – their viewers were willing to throw granny off the Golden Gate Bridge to convince us that the virus was only a threat to “the weak.”

And roughly two years after SARS-CoV-2 first came to our shores (and nine months after my first dose, eight after my second, and two after my booster), I was spending Christmas, not with loved ones – some possibly for the last time – but replacing Prime Rib with ham because my taste buds weren‘t up to par while watching football in my pajamas. That’s not necessarily an awful Christmas, but it’s one that somebody should celebrate by choice, not force.

Believe me, I do not mean to sound ungrateful for my relative health, nor am I naïve to the fact that so many of you were alone for the holiday for a second consecutive year. But something will have to change soon if we’re going to hold onto whatever collective sanity remains.

If there was a silver lining to the forgettable end to 2021, it’s that I had ample time to analyze the early response to Rear View Mirror, however. Subscribers can expect two long-form newsletters per week – likely on Tuesday and Thursday. Fridays will continue to look at some of the more intriguing stories circulating on the internet. And this weekend will mark my return to a regular Sunday column for the first time since August of 2018.

(I’m in the “hate” part of my love/hate relationship with Facebook - actually, it’s a tolerate/hate relationship. I can’t make any firm commitments about the regularity that content will be shared there. Once again, subscribing is your best bet if you want to guarantee content from any writers you follow).

We are facing monumental challenges in the year ahead – I know it’s starting to feel like January 1 is the new Groundhog Day. That doesn’t change the fact that the calendar is littered with potential landmines that can set back the hard-fought progress we’ve made as a country in the last 245 years on everything from the right to vote to the right to choose.

But it’s also loaded with opportunities. This CAN be the year where COVID-19 becomes endemic. We CAN build on the small but substantial commitments to save the planet that emerged from Glasgow last autumn. And very soon, the United States Senate has hinted it may finally take the needed steps to guarantee voting rights to all Americans.

I’m going to choose to focus on the opportunities. 2020 and 2021 have given us enough grief, loss, and anger to last centuries. It feels as if we’ve had no choice but to sit back and watch history happen to us.

Maybe 2022 can be the year where we make it happen ourselves.

To a fantastic year, my friends,

-Ed