2020: What a year eh?

Today is the 31st of December and we sit at the cusp of a new year and a new decade, its funny to think that 2020 breezed by in a such a flurry. One day we'll probably  tell grand tales of those days when we... sat at home, watched netflix and gained 70 pounds... I suppose they won't be grand tales after all. As I read and talk with other people I hear more and more about how 2020 was the worst year of all time or something to that effect.

I would consider it to be quite the contrary actually, chiefly due to two points.

First of all, the worst year wasn't 2020,it was AD 536. People had to face a volcano eruption(the worst of all time) which caused an incredible amount of ash to descend reducing visibility to tuppence, seasons merged, temperatures dropped ,crops wilted and died. This also set the stage for the outbreak of the bubonic plague in AD 541 which, well... wasn't exactly pleasant.

Fancy having this bloke come to treat your incessant coughing and diarrhea?

Secondly, I'd argue that this year's isolation and upheavals are a sort of wake up call for us, we haven't ever had this large a scale for scope of introspection. Suddenly big fat weddings seem unnecessary, meeting your friends seems like a precious commodity. Most of us have learnt the much valuable lesson of not taking things for granted(of course with human beings being human beings we'll be back to normal in like 3 months or something). 

We as human beings have the ability to endeavour and to strive in tough conditions, and I hope that this year gave us the fortitude to face our future battles.

I shall leave you with the story of Pandora's Box abridged by yours truly,

Zeus the king of all gods in Olympus, had two titans in allegiance with him the brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus. Zeus was quite pleased that at least two fellows from the titans weren't keen on murdering the Gods, so he gave them the task of creating all animals on earth. Prometheus steadily work on each creature to balance them and give them a position in the hierarchy of nature, last but not least he created man, but for man there was no protection from the elements left. So Prometheus asked Zeus if he could give the gift of fire to mankind, Zeus was not particularly thrilled at the proposition and shot the idea down. Prometheus out of love for his creation,gave them the gift anyway. When Zeus found out he was furious, how dare Prometheus disobey him?! So as any rational god would do he chained Prometheus to a cliff and ordered an eagle to come feast on his liver everyday(because he was a titan his liver grew back everyday). Prometheus suffered through the pain until the hero Heracles rescued him.
Yeah that doesn't seem like a ton of fun eh?
Zeus wasn't done however, humans were also to blame according to him, he created a woman called Pandora moulded in the shape of Aphrodite with gifts of wisdom, curiosity ,beauty, kindness etc you catch my drift, essentially the perfect lass). Epimetheus was smitten by Pandora(not literally) and decided to marry her, despite Prometheus' warnings. This was part of Zeus' plans of course and at the wedding Zeus gave Pandora a box, warning her to never open it (jeez thanks for the thoughtful paperweight Zeus). Pandora couldn't contain her curiosity and decided to peek inside the box.

Alas! This was her folly as the box contained the miseries of the world greed, envy, hatred, pain, disease, hunger, death poverty . Luckily Pandora had the sense to close the box and she managed to slam the lid down, trapping the most important thing of all- Hope.

And in the end isn't that all that matters? Hope for another dawn and the determination to succeed.

Happy New Year's everyone!
Toodles!
Aby


Comments

  1. LunaticTacticianMarch 2, 2021 at 2:04 AM

    "As I read and talk with other people I hear more and more about how 2020 was the worst year of all time or something to that effect."
    Heh, don't even remind me of the World Wars. lololol
    But so far, 2020 was indeed the worst year of MY life. I don't know if it will change in the future--heck, we're STILL fighting the fucking Wuhan coronavirus in 2021. (I'm 21 years old.)

    "Suddenly big fat weddings seem unnecessary, meeting your friends seems like a precious commodity."
    i haven't hung out with a friend in more than a year (intentional bad grammar)

    ReplyDelete

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