2020. Four syllables (or five, depending on how you say it, but no sane person would not say twenty-twenty, right?) that will surely for all time produce a deep visceral reaction in those that have lived through these 126 years 12 months. What a funny year. In February we were staying near Ronda in Spain on holiday and had heard something vague in a news article or two about a mystery respiratory illness in China. Shortly before flying home we heard news about the outbreak in northern Italy, which still seemed like a problem a million miles away both physically and mentally. Quickly it felt a little more real as we passed through the airport in Munich but it was still something very "out there" as opposed to, say, "next door". The day that schools finally shut down and my office was closed in mid-March had an obviously surreal feeling, and the days that followed were not as difficult as they would eventually become because there was not only a tinge of novelty, but a sense of togetherness in that we were all living through this crazy thing and we would survive together and it was kind of mysterious and different and strange having to venture to the grocery store. We discussed seeing people with masks which was so odd at the time, especially in contrast to now where if you see someone without one then you immediately know something about their politics and self-centredness. The summer brought about a calm before the storm where guards were let down and things actually weren't that bad -- at least in many places such as here in Germany -- with a bad day in virus news meaning a few hundred new infections instead of several dozen thousand like we have today. We were fortunate enough to spend some time at a mountain-top cottage in Austria and later in the summer we spent a week in Italy. On both trips the virus was never too far from our minds but it only passively affected us in that, for example, we wore masks in the hotel hallways and -- while the weather was thankfully beautiful -- made sure we ate all of our meals outside.
The second wave in the Fall is something that experts basically told us was a certainty but it seems everyone is still surprised by the seriousness of how bad things have gotten. It has perhaps never been so different from now but there is indeed a pervasive feeling in society that if something sounds contrary to what we want then we can just imagine a different reality and that will be the one that comes to pass. Unfortunately people's resolve have further crumbled with the length of this "thing", the amplification of ridiculous conspiracy theories through social media, and the in-vogue societal distrust of governments, experts of any kind, and international organizations. It feels so useless to even mention but the hypocrisy of populist right wing elected officials has helped a huge amount in bringing us to this point. Wearing a mask is tyranny but banning abortion is pro-life. Not being able to go to a bar is an unjust oppression but killing innocent black people is just a mistake by otherwise upstanding police officers. What can you expect when you have elected officials like these?
On the one hand, modern technology and modern society will perhaps help to make this pandemic short(ish) lived with up to 3 or more vaccines having recently been shown to be highly effective in preventing Covid-19 and being developed, tested, and brought to market in a timeframe that is near unheard of (while most vaccines require between 10 and 15 years to develop and become available, the fastest until now was the Mumps vaccine which required a little over four years). There is also the speed at which we learned about the disease, other technologies such as mobile-phone-based contact tracing, and newly-developed treatments that have kept death rates much lower than they surely would have been years ago. On the other hand, however, people are basically stupider than ever and (well, it's not totally their faults, it's the platforms themselves which are a huge part of the problem) will believe almost anything. If something is repeated to you over and over again in a Facebook echo chamber, evolution has given you no ability to overcome the inundation. Seeing conmen in movies sometimes might lead you to think "no way someone would believe this in real life" but there are literally millions of people -- including people dying at that very moment of Covid-19 -- who believe that it's a hoax. W. T. F. This is not a fringe really anymore; there are millions of people in the United States who believe Trump won the election and that it was stolen from him by fraud. Many of those same people believe that every single world leader (well, except Trump and Bolsonaro, I guess), every single corporation, every single doctor, nurse, public official, scientist, whatever, has somehow got together in a huge secret club to collude to invent a disease that they are suffering from at that very minute. And why would they do such a thing? Of course there's no single answer, but one of my very favourite conspiracy theories is that the hoax was created to force the world to accept taking a vaccine with an embedded microchip so people can be tracked. Imagine! The guy writing this conspiracy theory just logged into his smartphone using a fingerprint sensor, where he connects to a mobile phone network using a device with sub-metre accuracy GPS, has given all of his photos and social connections to Facebook, and all of his purchase history to Amazon, and he's worried about a tracking chip that could not possibly exist in a vaccine to help bring the world back to whatever normal sort of existed before. Un-fucking-believable.But, there is some good news. Despite Trump's and unbelievably, yet sadly believably and I suppose inevitably, senior republicans' protestations to the contrary, Joe Biden, who by any measure and all accounts seems to be an honest-to-goodness Good Man who holds ideals of living in and supporting an actual civil society and trusts scientists and loves more than just himself will be the next president of the United States [in-line footnote: my very favourite outcome of the Hunter Biden "Laptop Scandal" that the Republican Party and Fox News, et al. tried desperately to push during the waning days of the US election and that led to somehow having some of Biden's son's e-mails released is that Joe Biden is basically a good dad]. While I thankfully do not live there, the direction of the US has some (obviously) pretty important ramifications on the directions of the rest of the world. As mentioned above, there are at least 3 vaccines that early data seems to suggest will help put this crazy 2020 behind us. Germany may start vaccinating people as early as December 15th. Biden will put the US back into the Paris Climate Agreement as of his first day in office. Maybe the world will survive at least a little longer. Thanks to the announced vaccines Lyft stock is way up and so maybe one day we'll be able to buy a cottage. So really, good news all around.
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Until we all start getting vaccinated, there is still a life to live. For only the second time in 8 years, and the first time in 5 years, we will not be able to make the long trip to Canada this December/January to celebrate Christmas. That sucks. Especially with small children who provide zero breaks to try to restore your sanity and not many options for distractions with limited social engagements and pretty cold temperatures outside, things can feel pretty difficult, frustrating, and generally draining a lot of the time (however we won't have to fly with Heinrich at this stage of his life so thank God for that). Don't get me wrong, I know that we're extremely privileged and lucky in almost all aspects of life, but this year has presented a lot of unique challenges that are especially felt (INTER ALIA) by those with small children and who do not have family close by. We do, however, have something different to look forward to: Christmas in Quarantine!
Christmas in Quantine, Munich, 2020/2021 was a period consisting of approximately four to six weeks during the Covid-19 Pandemic that ravaged much of the world towards the beginning of the third decade of the third millennium where a series of Christmas celebrations took place without the participants actually going anywhere, seeing anyone, or doing much of anything (note that in parallel there were multiple more traditional Christmas celebrations held predominantly by Republicans, conspiracy theorists, and other people who only care about themselves and/or are very divorced from reality). It was a strange period in history to say the least, but people made do often with the help of alcohol, modern technology, and self delusion.
Our Christmas in Quarantine started just this past weekend when Helga and I put up our new outdoor Christmas lights in the backyard. Helga and her mother then built this year's Adventskrantz which is currently burning one candle strong, and I broke out for the first time this year Tramp Records' Santa's Funk & Soul Christmas Party Volume 1 on vinyl as we enjoyed the remnants of what one can find on the first Sunday of Advent at the local bakery when you show up 3 minutes before it closes.
Christmas in Quarantine 2020 continued today, December 1st, with, appropriately enough, our first snowfall of the season. Later today we will open the first entry on our coffees of the world Advent Calendar and sit back and relax for perhaps up to 7 seconds before Heinrich tries to throw my stereo to the ground or Helga tries to strangle her little brother to death.
I hope to report back with additional happenings as they happen from this very special, very unique, and very original Christmas in Quarantine 2020. Until then, stay healthy friends!
