What Kind of 2020 Did You Have?

 So yesterday was absurdly beautiful -- today, too. We got our first real cold front of the year, and it was, like the great SNL skit of B and T women, sweata weatha. I walked with a sweat shirt, and loved every one of the 10 miles. And then I got a call from Mark, my personal CPA.

He had classic good and bad news. The income was much higher than last year -- a combination of some great results from the firm, and nice gains I took when I sold some stocks back in April, thinking that the mix of Trump and the Plague might well get us into another Great Depression, and I figured cash was better than sinking securities.

The bad news, of course, is that I would be writing a big check to the government in April. The amount was twice the gross salary of my first lawyer's job. So much for the Trump tax cuts...

Anyway, I still had a month to take some action -- sell some loser stocks, and bump up the charitable donations. And I got all that done by today. There really was no bad news -- paying taxes should be the worst thing we have to worry about.

Wifey and I drove to Black Point for dinner -- our first since March. In another first, I put on long pants for the first time since March. And, since I've lost 40 lbs, the jeans were all too big -- I had to cinch them up with a belt. Another good problem to have...

And we reflected on something. Looking back on our life together, 1992 stands out. It's the year I made my first big money. Far more significantly, D2 was born. And it was also the year Hurricane Andrew literally blew away our house and many of our possessions.

So in a single year, we survived the greatest natural disaster we'll probably ever face, and yet in more important ways prospered.

It struck us that 2020 is much the same. There was grave political peril, and the virus is still raging, with, thankfully, an end in sight. And yet, in this year, D2 and Jonathan married during a weekend out of fairy tales, surrounded by those most sacred to us. And, a new dog, Betsy joined our pack, as well as a beautiful baby boy, our grandson.

I called Rabbi Yossi to tell him there'd be a few more shekels coming to his wonderful Friendship Circle, an amazing program that provides support and love to special needs kids. And we talked about this concept -- annus horribilis and annus of wonderment.

He said something that truly resonated: in a decade or so, we'll look back and ask each other "What kind of 2020 did you have?" The simple answer will be a year of fear, and sickness, and death. But to those of us who indeed make it through, it will be looked upon as a year of healing, of growth, of blessings.

Today is Dana's birthday. Eric set up a surprise Zoom -- about 30 people joined, and we sang Happy Birthday. Her grandmother was on -- she's turning 103, I think. And Dana's smile said it all -- she felt so lucky and blessed -- even though we all just clicked an icon to join the video chat. Dana gets it -- it's all about gratitude for what we have, and she had the love of family and friends, albeit remotely because of the damned plague.

So we're in the final month of 2020. As the year was beginning, I had my usual optimism and search for easy puns -- I said the year would be the "year of perfect vision." I guess it was -- it's just that I didn't like much of what I saw.

And yet, I did like much of what I saw, and in that way, 2020 is another year in the life. I just hope this plague ends soon, and maybe we'll have another "Roaring 20s." I'll even learn the Charleston.