Looking Back & Looking Ahead
While, and I admit this freely, Joe Biden was not my first choice for president, politically speaking, I do like him. The impression he gives as a man of calm sincerity, honesty, and determination is a great change (and welcomed change, in my opinion), and it's a change I like and welcome wholeheartedly.
Thinking back, on a personal level, over the last four years, my life has changed considerably.
When Trump won in 2016, I was still working as a Deli Clerk at a local grocery store chain here in St. Louis. In fact, I was at work on election night, watching the electoral college meters on Google slowly crown Trump the winner. Seeing Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan tur red that year seriously made me sick, and I've been dealing with the anxiety of that discomfort ever since.
However, by the end of 2017, I became determined--partly because I was afraid of where this country was going, and partly because I was sick to death of working at the Deli (it was the job, not the people)--to leave and earnestly pursue my dream of being a writer.
In January of 2018, I shot-gunned applications to every writing workshop I knew of, and that April, the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction, in Lawrence, Kansas accepted me. It was there that I truly received the writer's education in workshopping and storytelling craft that I needed and craved.
That same year, in July of 2018, I started this blog as a means of always keeping myself writing. I don't know if it's helped me improve my craft, but it's certainly helped to keep me in touch with it. I really dug in and started to become a real member of Twitter's ever expanding #WritingCommunity. And then, later that year, that November, I sold my first nonfiction piece to Tor.com.
Now, here we are, in late 2020. I started 4 Cents a Podcast, which has become it's own thing with a good audience, and my first short story appeared in the anthology, Beneath the Twin Suns. And, I've got several other fiction writing projects in the works set to debut in more anthologies because of that.
If you remove the constant, low-grade anxiety that pervaded the last four years, on the whole, it's been a pretty good period for me. Although, clearly, it's really helped act as a decent fuel for productivity.
With all that said, of course, having a new president and vice president-elect is only the first step in mitigating these issues currently facing this country, and on a larger scale, the world. And, we also must remain skeptical to an extend.
Just because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are poised to take the reins of power doesn't mean they'll be any good. And just because the two of them are such goodhearted people, as past presidents such as Jimmy Carter illustrate, also doesn't necessarily mean they'll be good leaders.
That said, it shouldn't be too difficult improving upon the example set by their so-to-be predecessors, and, for now, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.
The most paramount problem facing the country (and world) right now, as it has been since March, is COVID-19. Before we can even think of bolstering the economy, dealing with the issue of systemic racism, or combatting climate change in earnest, we have to deal with this problem. And it's continuing to affect people.
This past Friday, I did something I haven't done since the first lockdown: I went wandering through my home city.
I spent the day just going from one part of the city to another. No real destination, just a journey. I strolled down streets that I haven't set foot on for months. Wandered through neighborhoods I haven't been back to since the government's initial state of emergency declaration.
And what I saw scared me.
So many small businesses have either shuttered their doors completely or they've cut back on customer traffic that they're operating with skeleton crews.
One neighborhood hit particularly hard by the pandemic is a place called South Grand. South Grand is one of my favorite places in South City to visit and hang around. Or, at least it was until the pandemic struck. It was a wonderful neighborhood that was in the middle of a great development boom, particularly for small local businesses. Local Restaurants. Local New and Used Bookstores. Local Grocery Stores and Coffee Shops. It was a great place to hang.
However, looking at it when I did, going on 8 months into this pandemic, and the place has lost its spark.
Many of the stores are closed to walk-in customers. Many of the shops are working with those skeleton crews. And a few of them have shuttered completely.
It was heartbreaking to see a neighborhood that, in pre-COVID-19 times, had been so lively and so active, still standing, now a shattered reflection of itself.
This is what we are faced with right now. COVID-19 is still here, and the only way we'll be able to get our old lives back or--if that turns out to be impossible--be able to move forward more comfortably into the next stage of our lives is by dealing with it. I believe this new president and vice president-elect will do everything they can to find a solution.
In the meantime, we all just have to keep observing caution. Masking up. Washing our hands. Avoid potential exposure as much as possible. It's annoying, yes, and it's tiresome and tedious, butit might just save our lives.
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