Retrospect: 2021

Self-tutoring about people and events from the past: the tutor looks back on 2021.

Thinking back on 2021, two events immediately come to mind: I got vaccinated against COVID in Oct/Nov and Canada had a federal election on Sept 20. Now that I think of it, the world chess championship happened in Nov-Dec: Carlsen won.

In 2021, the world has seemed rather confusing. I think COVID has had a lot to do with that, but sometimes I wonder if it, too, is a symptom.

Shoveling the driveway on the evening of Dec 16, 2021, a guy maybe 28 years old arrived on the sidewalk.

“How’re you doing, Buddy?” he asked.

“I’m all right…how about you?” I replied.

We started talking, just about the snow, Christmas, and such. It came up that he works in Alberta, where the snow is more common. I was curious:

“How are things going in Alberta?” I asked.

He paused, then looked at me: “The world is upside down,” he declared. We continued for a couple more minutes, then wished each other a Merry Christmas.

The comment reverberates with me. When a worker from the Alberta gas fields tells you “the world is upside down,” you best believe it. Moreover, there seem to be lots of reasons you might: so many situations seem to be contradictions.

I recently read one health official’s opinion that vaccination alone will not be enough to stave off the Omicron situation. Then, you read that everywhere is hiring, yet also that some people are finding the job search difficult. We were led to believe that Americans just wanted to be done with Trump; now it seems they’re not a lot happier with his replacement. The international chess community tried hard to find a challenging opponent for Carlsen, yet it seems that, perhaps, Carlsen retained his title without much trouble. The US put around a trillion dollars into Afghanistan 2002-2021, trying to build a modern country with a modern army. Summer 2021, the Taliban, lightly armed, retook the country in a couple of weeks, on foot. We live on Vancouver Island, many people tell me, to escape winter. Yet, it’s snowing anew: I’ve shoveled the driveway four or five times since mid-December, and I’m sure I’ll be doing it again today. No complaints; I’m an old Maritimer. I’m just saying that this isn’t what I’m told people expect.

I can give many more examples of things that are true, but just “don’t make sense.” Perhaps, even to a casual observer, “the world is upside down.”

About 2022, who knows? Perhaps this confusion will dissipate like morning mist. Then again, perhaps not.

All the best in 2022:)