It seems like déjà vu doesn’t it? A year ago I wrote about getting through 2020, having lost 350,000 Americans. Now we’re up to over 820,000 dead and counting. Since then we have gone through the original, then Delta (still going strong) and Omnicron, which is currently spreading through our country like wildfire. 600,000 cases the day I write this! It’s difficult to process this knowing that it could have been much different if only a segment of the population decided to behave in a rational fashion. I know several seemingly intelligent people that refuse to vaccinate, one is in the midst of recovering from Covid as I write this. All of this is compounded by an increasingly nastier political climate fueled by lies and ever-stranger conspiracy theories. Then there are the ravages we’ve experienced caused by climate change that add to an already difficult situation.
What a way to start 2022! Another bad year, right? Well you could look at it that way, sit around and become creatively paralyzed, or you can think about all there is to be grateful for and get out there! With all the crap that went on this past year, 2021 turned out to be a pretty damn nice year for me … family, work and photographically. So how did that happen? I was resolved not to let the bastards get me down, did what I could to make some kind of difference and continued to “live a photographic life”. You know what … I’m going to do the same thing for 2022! And I hope you will too.
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year filled with meaning and purpose.
Stay safe,
Michael
Wishing a happy and healthy new year for some, and a winter of severe illness and death for the other segment of the population! Wow, I appreciate your artistic commentary, though expecting different outcomes “if only” some people “behave(d) in a rational fashion” proves to me at least that you are unfortunately misinformed, truly do not understand and accept reality, or lack a true sense of rationality and integrity as well. Here’s to more failed policies in 2022 of prevention-only, censorship of treatments, overt systemic segregation (2021 policy recalls of 1961, 1941 and 1921), lost jobs and business due to economic lockdowns and EO mandates (much like EO 9066), fully vaccinated and closed fully schools, increased obesity and mental health rates, record high inflation and loneliness for so many. I hope our nation will once again unite on common shared values of integrity and truth, rather than divide into ideological tribalism.