Hoping the Future is Better Than 2021

Tomorrow night marks the beginning of a new year. I wouldn’t be lying if I said good riddance to the one we have all been going through in 2021. Whether the issue is climate change, pandemics, social, business, or politics, this year has been brutal.

If I were American, I would be thankful to see 2021 end, a year that despite the end of the Trump presidency turned out to be just as problematic as the previous one. Consider the January 6th insurrection, the Republican agenda to restrict voting rights, the anti-vaccine stance in the so-called Red States, the more than 840,000 Americans in total that have now died from a virus that if some chose to wear a mask in public places and get vaccinated would have seen that number probably cut by half, and the horrific extreme weather events that scarred the U.S. from coast to inland and back to coast, cost lives lost and resulted in tens of billions of dollars in damages.

Canadians faired better but we too were assaulted by the pandemic, by extreme weather, and by vestiges of our colonial past and the social injustices it continues to create. Canada’s pandemic death toll hit 30,000 this month, a far cry per capita when compared to the U.S. number, but even here resistance to vaccinations persists. This week, after a record summer heat, wildfires, and torrential floods, the western end of the country has plunged into a deep freeze. Will 2021 ever stop screwing with us? One can only hope that 2022 will be better and that we can have something to do about making that happen.

There is a tradition in many cultures that celebrate the New Year after the winter solstice, to make resolutions about personal behaviour in the coming year. I know back in early December, I published a list of 12 personal climate change resolutions for 2022 to help the planet fight global warming.

What could I add to these to cover all of the other issues challenging us collectively and me personally in 2021?  So I sat down and came up with the following list in addition to the previous 12.

Non-Climate-Change Resolutions for 2022

1. It used to be easy to heed the science when it came to understanding what to do with the current COVID-19 pandemic. But there are too many voices today coming from too many communities within science and politics to confuse us. So my first resolution is to continue to be a knowledge source about this virus, the pandemic, and other medical threats we may face coming down the road. I resolve to do this by educating myself and sharing what I learn through this site and by other means.
2. Having just made my last tax-deductible and non-deductible donations to charities and causes aimed at improving our world, I resolve to do more while I still am able to help those less fortunate than my wife and me, work and support organizations focused on making the future better for people not just here in my country but elsewhere where there is hunger, violence, and injustice.
3. In retirement, my business focus has been to help entrepreneurs and their families and associates in the Developing World to lift themselves from poverty through providing microloans, and thus to raise all boats. To this, I am adding a resolution to communicate more effectively with the businesses I interact with personally in pursuit of collective goals to create a more sustainable future. I have already begun this pursuit by looking at investments and finances. In 2022 I will share more insights on this subject with all of you.
4. The politics of 2021 has resolved in me one abiding principle: to speak truth to power. I have been actively volunteering politically for the last eight years. I am resolved to continue that course of action and broaden my engagement outside of political parties and into organizations that respect the planet, nature, and the social contract to do no harm.
5. And finally regarding my health. This has been a most difficult personal health year. COVID-19 attacked my heart and I am still dealing with the consequences. I have resolved, therefore, to become more aware of my health needs, to take better care of myself, watch my diet, and finally when the pandemic lifts, get out of the rut that the pandemic has created for my wife and me. The daylight started coming back on December 22nd. So will other notable things come back in the New Year.

To the hundreds of thousands who have visited this blog site since I began it back in 2009, I thank you for your curiosity and the multi-million page views you have recorded here. This week was a delayed milestone because COVID made it difficult for me to write for almost six months. But at the beginning of the week, I posted my 3,300th article to the site.

I also want to thank contributing writers who have offered me content to post here. I have enjoyed working with them and value their contributions to make 21st Century Tech Blog a quality resource for the curious. If you haven’t tried to do a search on the site, please take advantage of the menu bar, categories and search window on the home page. Search is quite useful when looking for specific information. I find myself using it regularly because after 12 years, and at my age, about to turn 73 in a week, I wonder sometimes if I’m starting to repeat myself. But so far, so good.

Happy New Year!