Design your own 2020 countdown: Good riddance to this year

“Time is elusive as thinly stretched cotton fibers, fragile and unbroken as our love.”

Someone wrote me that in a love letter after he refused to change his life circumstances and man up to being in a relationship.

Bull….

Time is neither elusive or stretchable. It is uncontrollable.

You look at the clock or calendar and it sometimes is a wake up call. How did six months pass so quickly? Or alternatively, why is pay day 10 days away?

At the end of the calendar year, conventional wisdom has us taking a long hard look at the mistakes made in the past 365 days. It goes without saying that 2020 has been particularly challenging for our physical and mental health and the political and environmental challenges we have faced have been daunting.

As we rush to replace the zero at the end of our year with a 1, what is life if not believing that tomorrow will be better? Humanity has gone through a reset of cinematic proportions, hence the references above and below to one of my favorite sci-fi movies.

So here are the top three things that angered me the most in 2020. I list them in no particular order and hope that January 1 will bring change.

Here goes:

1. Hypocritical elected officials on both sides of the aisle who promised us stimulus checks, rent relief and college aid at the beginning of the pandemic but handed us mere peanuts. Where’s our money?
2. Celebrities who showcased the “hardships” they went through during quarantine in order to be relatable. Sorry Chelsea Handler — I love you, girl — but your pool and mansion you displayed on Instagram are in sharp contrast to the underclass you champion.
3. Telecommunication companies — yes like Verizon —that kept us connected in a time of social distancing at a hefty price and home streaming services that raised their rates, although their customer base grew.

The silent and unknown contributors on WikiPedia define “time” as such: “the indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present into the future.”

The key word I take away is progress, which leaves me optimistic that widespread vaccinations for Covid 19 will be successful. If not, the famous quote from the 1968 movie Planet of the Apes might ring true:

“The forbidden zone was once a paradise.

Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago.”