The Janus in January

Despite the chilly weather, I rather like January. It is the time to look back and to look forward, after all. There's recollecting both the good and the bad of the previous year followed by that wonderful sense of expectation of the year to come. Spring will arrive and we can each emerge from our hibernaculum. The temperature rises and we are treated to verdant scenery once again. The world takes on a patina of newness and people become determined to make hay while the sun shines because winter always returns. But it's harder to muster that optimism these days with Covid-19 still running amok and the site of insurrectionists/rioters storming the Capitol in Washington D.C. still fresh in our minds.

Overall, though, I am rather sanguine. While I certainly don't expect life to return to pre-pandemic normality in 2021, I do think things will get better. If nothing else, warmer weather means more opportunity to socialize with others outside, respectfully distanced. So there is always that to look forward to. But I have at least a modicum of confidence that vaccines will find their way into more arms, that there will be less sickness and death.

I have to admit that I have been rather lucky these past 10 months or so. My family has remained Covid-free while only two friends contracted it and they experienced relatively minor symptoms. My home office became my workplace and the same was true for my Frau. There are many people for whom the pandemic was much more disruptive and much more costly. I suppose my outlook is rooted in the fact that 2020, while certainly not the best of years, wasn't horrible for me.

In fact, there were some very positive developments last year. One of them was all of the early spring walks I took before starting work. Getting to know the call of a red-winged blackbird and triangulating my way to spying a woodpecker nest back in April were, perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, not major events. But, for me they were invaluable moments of calm at a time when people were getting sick from a virus that was not well understood and businesses were closing left and right. A little Waldeinsamkeit amidst all of the uncertainty. I look forward to resuming them in a couple months or so.

Another change for the better is that I have started buying flowers on a semi-regular basis. No, I do not have a green thumb and have no talent whatsoever at flower arranging. Every other trip or so to the grocery store I buy a bouquet. Ironically, I neglected to do so today. I just find it pleasant to have some pretty and sweetly scented flowers on the dining room table. I started doing this after I heard an episode of a podcast featuring the lead singer of Marillion, Steve Hogarth. In it he told of how he buys flowers for his hotel rooms when he is on tour. Just a little something to gussy up the place. The whole idea just seemed like a good one to me. Add a little color, bring some nature inside.

With many people in need and my pocket book doing alright I began donating more money in 2020. Both to new recipients and on a regular basis to an old one or two. I have been giving money to Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin (so my neighbors can eat), the Literacy Network (so my neighbors can read), Youth Guidance (so low-income kids in my hometown of Chicago get help to better themselves), and others that I cannot think of off of the top of my head.

In addition, I've been supporting local businesses when I can. We get dinner delivered or do takeout occasionally, I buy my CDs from MadCity Music, and I have been expanding my library with the help of A Room of One's Own. I suppose this isn't really new since I have been buying my CDs from MadCity for decades, for example. But I have been going out of my way to get locally roasted coffee! Buying local really isn't a new practice for me. I was saddened recently to read another Madison blogger write about all of the books that Amazon was delivering to his doorstep. Give me convenience or give me death!

Since we are not living paycheck to paycheck, I think about the kind of Madison I'd like to see when the pandemic is brought under control, if not ends, and I try to spend and donate accordingly. I would like a Madison to emerge from the pandemic populated by more than Starbucks, McDonalds, Home Depot, etc.

Something F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote comes to mind: "A man does not recover from such jolts-- he becomes a different person and, eventually, the new person finds new things to care about." By the time the pandemic ends or is at least under control, it will have taken many people, restaurants, shops, theaters, cultural institutions, etc. with it. I am not eager for people to die nor for any more Madison businesses and traditions to disappear but it will be very interesting to be around when that new Madison emerges.

In 2021 I have a few things to look forward to. One is being able to contribute to the process of redesigning the bus network here in Madison. Jarrett Walker and Associates have been hired to give our patchwork network an overhaul. This year they will study our bus system and then come up with alternatives to be implemented starting next year, if all goes well. When I start riding the bus again, I hope to be able get where I'm going more quickly. Heck, maybe even be able to take the bus to places I've not been able to previously.

Last month I wrote about some of my favorite movies, music, etc. of 2020 and normally I'd have a list of albums, films, books, etc. that I was eagerly anticipating in the new year. Covid has thrown the film industry for a loop so who knows what will be released this year beyond comic book movies? The only one that I am anxiously awaiting that is scheduled to be released this year is Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune. This being the case, I will continue to work my way through my to-watch list.

As for music, I will be purchasing Tea Party Revenge Porn by Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine when it comes out in March. Beyond that, I don't know what to expect in new music releases this year.

But even in years without a pandemic, I discover new and fun things and so it shall be in 2021. I just really wish I could go to the cinema. More safely than I can now, anyway.