2020 Vision
“What a crazy year it’s been!”
I’m sure you’ve heard those words uttered by someone, if not everyone. It’s quite possible that you’ve uttered those words yourself multiple times over the past 9-months. Think about those words as you hear them, think about those words as you say them, and think back on the previous 9-months.
“What a crazy year it’s been!” is a standard sentence for any year of your life. Every year brings its own challenges and hardships. The year 2020 was a fucking mind-blowing, Earth-shattering, hurricane-shit-storm that swept us up, and proceeded to fist-fuck & water-board us to the brink of insanity, let us up for a brief moment of hope, and then slowly began the torture all over again.
Don’t let this year off easy by saying “what a crazy year it’s been!” Tell the truth… It’s been one-gigantic pig-fuck of a year that has tested your patience, your sanity, your self-control, and your faith (whatever you believe), repeatedly. We are living in unprecedented times without a blueprint and it’s ok if you’ve been overwhelmed, angry, annoyed, and flat-out petrified. For us to just chalk it up as “what a crazy year it’s been” minimizes our feelings and deflects the reality. Tell the truth - this year was absolutely horrifying.
Does that mean that nothing good came out of this year? Of course not. There was plenty of change, plenty of bonding, plenty of appreciation, and plenty of innovation that came out of this Pandemic. The world hit “control-alt-delete” and forced a shutdown and hard reset on the way that many of us lived our lives. For a lot of us, we would’ve never have slowed down without this. This isn’t to say that we should be “thankful” for the Pandemic, as so many lost their lives and livelihoods unnecessarily - but what a massive spit in the face to them it would be if we didn’t learn and grow from this.
For me, personally, I’ve been a gym-rat and traveling comedian for the past 20-years. This year, with a forced reset, I traded in my fitness and funny for fat and family. I got to watch Netflix with my wife night-after-night without feeling guilty for not being in my office working on my comedy. I got to play with my kids and spend the entire summer in the pool with them without having to worry about getting in the shower to get ready for a show. I got to eat like a gluttonous piece of shit and sit on my lazy ass without feeling a desperate need to be at the gym working off everything I ate. Am I going to pay the price on that when quarantine slows down? Of course, I am, but I would never have done it at any other point in my life. Instead of the guilt, I’m learning and choosing to believe that my body needed these 9-months to rest and repair, my marriage needed some adequate attention, my kids needed to have their dad around more and not on the road so much. In reflection, I had one of the best summers of my life this year due to the simplicity of it. I got to spend quality time, I got to laugh, and I got to enjoy myself.
The holidays came this year and again, they were different because we didn’t get to see everybody all at the same time, but at the same time, it made those gatherings so much more meaningful and impactful when they happened. New Year’s Eve was last night and I had my parents over at our house. We ended up playing three-games of Yahtzee (my dad and my wife vs. my mom and me). When I was growing up, I lived with my mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and sister - and we played Yahtzee (boys against girls) almost weekly on Sundays. It was always so many laughs and such a great time being a family. My Grandparents have both been gone almost 10-years now and in that time we’ve only played Yahtzee maybe once. Last night was a great way to end this year - doing something that made me think of so many fun family moments growing up and carrying on that legacy.
And, that is what we have to remember coming out of this shit-stain of a year. Carry on the legacy. Remember the moments. Encourage the bond. Strengthen relationships. Embrace the reset. Slow down, smile, and keep it simple. We’re hopefully on the brink of wiping our ass of this Pandemic, and when we do, we are all going to have a choice: fall back into the old routine or create a new one out of the lessons you’ve learned.
I look forward to traveling the road again, making people laugh, and getting back to the gym. But I also look forward to many more Netflix binges with my wife and many more pool days with the kids. It’s no coincidence that 20/20 represents perfect vision and that is what this year brought for me.
Through the heartache and the hardships, we will get through this and we will persevere. But, don’t blame it on “a crazy year”. It’s been so much more than that and so many of you have sacrificed so much more than that. It’s been a life-altering year that has tested you to your very core - but I want you to slow down, smile, and breathe because you’re Rocky and you fucking kept getting back up.
2021 - Spread Hope Like Fire! (Angels & Airwaves)