Farewell to 2020: My Year in Review

On the last day of 2020, I had the thought of finding one Blogpost from each month that stood out a bit and re-print them one by one. My motivation was:

 

1) To look back at the year through the lens of my own writing.

 

2) To remember how things unfolded in this extraordinary unprecedented year. 

 

3) To increase the number of blogs written to average more than one a day—my 10 year record!

 

Well, that last is cheating, so I kept the first two and instead, just mention a title and brief description of some of the notable posts. For those faithful readers, it could be interesting to go through some of these again and remember what was going on for you at the time that you read them. 

 

Whether you read them or not, let me just take a moment to thank you for staying with me. Though some glitch with the comment section makes our connection less than an ongoing dialogue, the mere statistic of the number of folks who have read each entry (sometimes as low as 1, sometimes in the hundreds) makes this all more satisfying than just a personal journal read only by me. Without you, this would not exist. 

 

My greatest hopes are that these reflections amuse you, affirm you, challenge you, speak what you feel but have not yet found the words for, keep you company in shared thoughts and feelings, open windows into new ideas and needed information, etc. and etc. The mere fact of continuing to read them makes me feel that at least some of the above is happening. And I can’t help but wonder if any of you have stayed with it for the entire 10 years! (If you’d like to let me know, you can always send a short note to me at goodkindg@aol.com). Most importantly, Happy New Year to you and yours. Onward!

 

•JANUARY: The Other Side of End Times: First mention of corona virus

•FEBRUARY: Dis-appointment: My last live workshops in Singapore and beginning of things cancelled.

• MARCH: The Great Time-Out: Looking for meaning at the beginning of sheltering.

• APRIL: The Modern Online Schoolteacher: My Gilbert and Sullivan parody.

•MAY: Retirement Speech: The one I spoke online to the school community.

•JUNE: A Chance to Savor: My nod to Black Lives Matter.

              Closing Ceremony: Another farewell to school on the last day of 45 years.

• JULY: Why We Come to Orff Workshops: Might as well include one post related to the Blog’s title!)

• AUGUST: From the 60’s to the 60’s: A funny look at aging through hit songs. 

• SEPTEMBER: Petition to the Gods: My poem about the day that stayed dark.

• OCTOBER: Letter to My 11-Year Old Self: Preparing for the election.

• NOVEMBER: A Song For Every Occasion: Parts I/ II: Election euphoria!

•DECEMBER: Perfect Answer: Have to include the grandkids here!