The loss of Thanksgiving

We are not alone in declaring our love for Thanksgiving. A non-secular holiday where one can gather with family, friends, strangers even and share food, stories, love and warmth.  

Not this year. This is one more thing that has been stolen from us in 2020. From St. Patrick's Day going forward, everything we looked forward to has been torn away. No spring, everyone is sequestered in their homes. No holidays, no Memorial Day or July 4th because we cannot gather, and when some people did, more people got sick. No summer because of no gatherings, because it was too damned hot and because fire season started early. No summer barbeques, no picnics, too many Red Flag Warning days and Spare the Air days. 

Then finally, when the best months of the year arrived - October and November - there was still no joy because of multiple fires, many evacuations, more heat, and the unsettled situation around the Presidential election which still makes our collective guts clench in rage, fear and depression.  And then we have Thanksgiving, again usurped by this fucking virus, or more to the point, by the fucking idiots who don't wear masks and think it's fine to hang out in groups and spread the virus to anyone in their path.  This is all depressing at best. It's paralyzing and isolating and pathetic. I haven't talked to a single person in the past month who isn't going through some kind of depression, a lack of joy for anything.

Yes, we can try to be bright and Pollyanna-ish and we can be grateful that most of us don't know anyone firsthand who has died from Covid (but everyone know someone who has had it) but that fake upbeat mood doesn't do enough to mitigate the incessant fear and anxiety that still surrounds us. Not having an end to the election  doesn't help one bit, either.

I have no ideas of how to get oneself out of this circling the drain. I am in that circle of depression myself. All we can do is hold on, hope and be kind to everyone we meet with the thought that some of that kindness might come back to us, and in the end, it might help. Something needs to help. This situation is not sustainable.

Thank  you for listening.