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Tommy Druen: The lesson I have taken from 2021 Previous Column: Learning to sit still By Tommy Druen When December hits, people tend to become reflective in nature. We look back at the past year and forward to the next one. Some measure their accomplishments, while others plan ahead. There is nostalgia, optimism and dread. Each and every person has a different inner response, but the truth remains that December is a marked waypoint in our lives each and every year. This last year has been rough, and we should acknowledge that. Around the globe, we have experienced a continuing pandemic, natural disasters, rioting in the streets and government buildings, the reemergence of the Taliban and rising inflation. From the macro to the micro, the amount of financial and mental health struggles, with one often being the cause of the other, increased dramatically. It is definitely enough to make one wonder if all these are the beginning of sorrows. However, while we tend to focus on the negative, the positive abounds! At an unprecedented speed, the COVID vaccine was developed and deployed. Nearly half of the people in the world are already fully vaccinated. There were peaceful transitions of power around the world. There was flight on another planet, while private enterprise found ways to take citizens out of our atmospheric borders and return. And, despite all the challenges, the world came together to witness the peak athleticism on display at the Tokyo Olympics. I will not claim that the positive outweighs the negative. Although I think that argument could be made, I recognize that is a very individual matter. What I will say is that there has been enough positive to find hope for the future. Granted, I understand it is difficult to find. Television news, talk radio, websites, etc. have found profit in bleakness. Spiro Agnew warned us years ago about the nattering nabobs of negativism. A flawed man, Agnew may have hit the nail on the head with that phrase. It is no surprise that the negativity trickles down from on high to the masses. If every media source covering national and global affairs preaches despair, how could anyone expect people to be of good cheer? If you believe everyone is out to get you, why would there not be increased assertions of self-entitlement? My apologies to all the wonderful ladies with the name, but should it be any shock that Karen culture has emerged? This last week I was arranging the books on our bookshelf (categorized, of course) and found How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Given the timing, I laid it aside to read to my daughter soon. Having the general basis of this column working in my head already, I also immediately saw the correlation. Much like the Grinch, we have to question why it is so many people are quick to complain, criticize and generally despise the world in which they find themselves. Why are people exceedingly distrustful of such stalwart institutions that have been the building blocks of society like universities, churches and government? Is it because their heads aren't screwed on just right? Or perhaps their shoes are too tight? I think that the most likely reason of all, may be that their hearts are two sizes too small. It's difficult to deny that we live in a society with less compassion for our fellow man than in years past. It's not only understandable, but predictable. With every technological advancement we make, the amount of personal interaction we have declines. And far from being a Luddite, I would submit that less interaction means less humanity and, yes, less love. It's a lot easier to complain to the manager about a waitress when you didn't go to school with her parents, didn't teach her in Sunday school, or didn't watch her play sports for the local high school. When we don't know people, then people become commodities, nothing more than a means to an end. As I get older, I fight my inner curmudgeon. I increasingly lean towards not suffering fools gladly. Yet, I recognize that is not good for me, nor the people with whom I surround myself. At risk of jumping the gun by a month, I'm setting a resolution to try to truly know people better, to interact with them more, and to find patience with mistakes rather than perceiving them as intentional slights. I want to do my part to find the positive and accentuate it, and hopefully see my heart grow three sizes! If ever there was a person who had the utmost right to have pure hatred for the condition in which she found herself, Anne Frank would have to be at the top of the list. Yet she famously wrote, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." I want more of Anne Frank in my life. I want more people to have more of Anne Frank in their lives. I want us to collectively combat the negativity that is so easy in which to wallow. We can and we must make our own lives better. That is the lesson that I have taken from 2021. Tommy Druen is a native of Metcalfe County, with roots in Adair County going back to the 18th century. He presently lives in Georgetown, Kentucky and can be reached at tommydruen@gmail.com. This story was posted on 2021-11-30 07:23:05
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COVID-19 News Brief & Vaccination Update 11/29/2021 Sunny and windy today, high 57F 7-County Area Courts for Tue 30 Nov 2021 Christmas Lights on the Farm open nightly Wolf spiders actually help Drive-Through Christmas starts Fri 10 Dec 2021 Remembering Marsha Roberts Sunny today, high 46F 7-County Area Courts for Mon 29 Nov 2021 The best video ever View even more articles in topic News |
 
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