Just over the horizon

As I write this the sun is going down over Camp Pendleton and the Pacific, off to my west. Today was the beginning of week 52 on my 2020 calendar (yes, the end is near!) and the day before the Winter Solstice. And it was 83 degrees F and sunny. Not very Christmasy.

I managed to work out more today than I have in a long time. Ninety minutes of structured exercise, including rowing 5 kilometers. You’d think that would set me up to have a productive day, but after that all I’ve been able to muster is some reading and naps. I planned to break out the novel and write a chapter or two, but all I’ve got is…this.

One final thought. I watched Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” last night for the first time in a long time. It’s as if it were made in 2020, not 1989. It’s a great movie, but so sad that the movie’s tragedy of a black man killed by a cop’s excessive force was a thing back then and is still a thing today. Thirty one years since then and it appears we’ve learned nothing. I can’t even imagine how Spike felt about George Floyd – his killing was so uncannily the same as Radio Raheem’s in the movie.

There were no happy endings in the movie, or maybe they were just beyond the credits. That’s my hope for 2021 – the happy ending may be just a bit farther away than we can see.

What’s the first thing you’ll do when it’s safe again?

I tried hard to find something positive to write about this morning. Several recent posts have been a bit dark. Pessimistic. So I landed on this thought about the future. What are the first things you’ll do when it’s safe to do them again?

My list is simple:

  1. Get on a Southwest flight and go visit the kids, grandkids and my Dad, enjoying the miracle of six hour travel time (8 hours including the drive to the airport and check-in), as opposed to 30 hours of driving.
  2. Take an international trip. Not sure where first, though we do have a South America / Antarctica trip scheduled for January 2022.
  3. Have a dinner party with friends.
  4. Go to any/all of my favorite restaurants, enjoy the meal and be happy that the price keeps someone in business.
  5. Go wine tasting in Napa, Sonoma, Temecula or Paso. Or all of them.
  6. Convince some friends and family to come visit and do some of the things on the list above.

The common elements in the list are (a) do things with people and (b) travel. Pretty basic stuff. How about you – what will you do?