Well as I look back on 2020 I can only hope as I write this that 2021 will be better. With the events in DC this past week, I have my doubts. Someone has already said that 2021 is only 2020 now legally being able to drink. Let’s hope not.

We were introduced to knew people and new phrases in 2020. Nothing against Dr. Fauci and I wish him the best but I hope that I never see him again in 2021. Deborah Birx??? Never want to see another scarf and wish you well in your upcoming retirement. We will have new faces politically in 2021 now give us new faces pandemically as well. How about we rid these words and phrases out of our lexicon:

“New Normal”. This word is so March 2020. Let’s get rid of it.

“We’re all in this together”. Usually expressed by the well heeled from the comforts of their home.

“Unprecedented”. Meaning has never happened. Has been a word used at every press conference since March.

“Hotspot” used to be something we connected to the internet, now its means, a place surging with a deadly virus. Get rid of it in 2021

‘Virtual” <insert anything> as a prefix it is instantly ruined. Such as “Happy Hour”. This is what happens when you drink quarantinis while meeting up on Zoom with people who are not in your COVID bubble or quaranteam. I am so over that word. Nothing good comes out of virtual.

“Grim Milestone”, no more unpleasant occurrences.

“Cancelled or postponed” so much of that in 2020. From shortened baseball season to my yearly trek to Charleston to see The Mavericks. Never want to hear this again.

“The Rona” Apparently saying a five-syllable word got old for most of us after about three months. Hence: the ‘rona. It’s something you’d use, say, after sneezing in front of your neighbors: “Don’t worry! It’s allergies, not the ‘rona!” I have allergies people. So tired in prefacing every sneeze.

“Flatten the curve” What happens to the curve when you have a bunch of covidiots and maskholes catching the moronavirus. 

I could go on for there are many phrases and words for 2020 but 2020 is soon coming to an end and 2021 is going to be here in a week. I want to be able to sit behind my computer in 2021 writing about new words. Words like, abundance…….as in vaccines. I am hoping that will be a word we can hear often in 2021.

The word achieve is a word I hope we will be writing about in 2021 as in more pharmaceutical company achieving success in finding a cure.

Me personally, I hope to be hearing the word adventure in 2021. As in vacation adventure with Joni and Cecil.

Expand as in places the vaccine will be available in the country.

Progress Just as the COVID-19 pandemic dominated our lives in 2020, it was a huge focus for many researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and around the world. That focus is likely to continue in 2021, but the increasing availability of vaccines means our experts forecast a positive shift in the course of the pandemic in the coming year. This is what we need to hear in 2021.

Gratitude as in thanks to all the health workers who have busted there butts in this pandemic and when it is over as I do when I see a cop or a vet I will walk up and thank them for their service and offer to by them a beer, off duty cops of course.

Gatherings not fist pumping but public gatherings with big Bro hugs. Cold beer in a crowded bar with live music. “Play ball”. “Go Bravos”. Relaxing with friends and making new memories. Eating with friends.

The word that I want to read more of in 2021 is the word HOPE. Hope, indeed, is what we have. As bad as 2020 there were some amazing advances that gave us hope. Science, to be able to come up with a vaccine this quickly shows us that science can indeed save us. Not politicians, not empty promises but science. Science delivers and it must be celebrated, researchers because we  have a safe vaccine within months of the pandemic and they are the ones who made it possible. I’ve never understood the rift between science and religion. I am a person of faith and I embrace science and I thank God, literally for it.

HOPE in humanity. I think humanity showed its strengths throughout the difficulties. Random people helping each other in shopping and support groups lifting those struggling with challenges. People pulling together in our part of the world at the soup kitchen. People dancing on balconies and really caring for each other like never before; and messages of hope, love and support soaring to medical personnel all over the world. 

I have HOPE that one day soon we can take off these masks and I can see people smile and they can see my smile. I have missed that as much as anything. In the book of Romans Paul tells us to Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. I can not say that any better.