Now we've unceremoniously shown 2020 the door, it's time, 2021, we set some ground rules. Your delinquent older sibling set a terrible example and we want you to do much better.
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First up, no more heaping disaster upon disaster. Last year delivered enough catastrophe to last a lifetime: drought, fires, floods overlaid with a pandemic. Did it break us? No, but it sure was exhausting.
Second, go easy on the nasty surprises. Seriously, after everything 2020 dished up, aliens walking through Crown Street Mall probably wouldn't raise an eyebrow these days. Who would have guessed at the beginning of 2020, for instance, there would be calls to cancel the cricket at the end?
That work would shift from the office to the home?
That Zoom would for many bring our colleagues into our homes? That working remotely would see our productivity increase?
That the annual trip to Bali or Thailand would be off the cards for the foreseeable future? That eventually we'd be refunded the airfares of those prebooked holidays?
That a conservative federal government would embrace - temporarily, at least - a big-spending cure for recession which water the eyes of the most ardent socialists?
That Donald Trump would end up ripping into Fox News on a daily basis as his eviction from the White House drew closer?
That we'd mark New Year's Eve soberly, carefully and in - excuse the pun - the smallest of clusters?
No doubt about it, 2020 delivered weird by the truckload. We've had our fill So, 2021, we'd like you to be normal for a change. Not the "new normal" that's been rammed down our throats but normal like we remember.
We want you to get us to a place where we can gather to celebrate milestones like weddings, birthdays, Christmas and, of course, New Year's Eve.
We want you to make the world reasonably safe again. We want to once again enjoy the things that make us human: being sociable, touching things. Not ducking for cover at the slightest sneeze or cough or washing our hands 68 times a day.
Think you can do that, 2021?
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