2020 has been a sucker punch to the nuts. I know, I know… not just for me. For the entire world.
Here’s my litany of 2020 challenges:
- I co-own and run indie bookstores. Having been closed for nearly four months, and watching debt mount, every day feels like it will be the last day. It’s like living in a state of perpetual dread. It’s like Sisyphus.
- I unwittingly — and very unintentionally — stepped into the middle of a REDACTED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT.
- I published Hard Wired into a pandemic. Not only are people buying fewer books than they would in better economic times, I’ve been so overwhelmed by the day job (see #1 above), I haven’t had time to properly promote HW. (Until today, I hadn’t updated this site for six weeks.) I’m sure my publisher is thrilled with that. Though really, they haven’t been able to do much for or with the book either.
- And yes, masks, quarantines, social distancing, blah blah blah.
But you know what? It could be worse. I can always be worse. A lot worse.
My kids are healthy and happy. I love my wife. I love my neighbors and my neighborhood. I still get to walk the dog every morning.
That last one may sound like a small thing, but it’s not. My day starts with 20 minutes of fresh air (when there aren’t wildfires filling the sky with haze and smoke — FUCK YOU 2020!), a happy three-year-old-but-I’m-still-a-puppy-and-will-chase-every-bird-I-see companion, and a chance to clear my head.
The daily walk is an important reminder of all that I do have, and of how incredibly lucky I really am.
So yeah, 2020 sucks, but I am thankful for all the good things in my life, big and small.