I will never forget the week of January 1, 2021, hearing every person I encountered, whether it was family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, clients, or the clerk at the local grocery store, proclaim in cheerful form, “Thank Goodness 2020 is behind us!” Most would go on to proclaim further, many in an even brighter tone, “I can’t wait for 2021!” Neither could I.
And it was, for a few cheerful months, a wonderful beginning to the New Year. Until reports began to trickle in about the mysterious COVID-19 delta variant first detected in India. It was more easily transmissible, the experts cautioned. It could be more virulent, others warned. If we’re not careful, the experts lectured, the world and economy we were building back could come crashing down. And their threats eventually proved true. At the same time we began shedding those horrific masks and getting ready to declare our independence from COVID-19 altogether, the federal government began mandating the country back to the place we had just been.