As I start to write this, I find myself humming the song: “’tis the season…” but I find that I don’t want to simply complete it the usual way: “to be jolly”. I can think of other ways to end the phrase, but I’m first curious as to how you would. As we complete what ended up being a super turbulent year, I would wager that every family and indeed, every person, would have their own unique phrase to slot in there. What is yours?

When I really think of it, several ideas come to mind for me. Like…’Tis the season…to be a skeptic. To be wary. To rejoice. Based on these, hmm, I’m trying to figure out what angle I should write this post. Well, friends, when 2020 began, everything seemed to me to be all as usual. There was no real reason for any of us to expect it to be much different than many other years prior. Then COVID hit. And with that the upheavals and great disruptions not only started playing out, but in rapid pace. It was a most unusual and especially uncertain time when every person found themselves needing to know truth through all avenues. It was also the time when, as the months played out, we discovered in increasing measure that none of them could be trusted. The institutions we had looked up to for most of our lives had been shaken to their foundations, weighed in the balances, and found to be…wanting. Lacking. I for sure have found myself greatly and increasingly disappointed in all such. Given my background, my area of study and work, I found that I was more greatly frustrated by the mainstream media. How in the world could people be given conflicting info (and constant messages of fear/terror) all at once at a time when folks were most fragile?

I’ve heard one argument in response to that: “Well, it was an uncertain time, nobody really knew the mechanics of the virus. It was a figure-it-out-as-you-go situation.” See, I’m a very reasonable person. I agree with all that. Totally fine. So, we waited a few more months and discovered that there were doctors who, having done what we would expect ALL doctors to do, had done their work of researching and studying the virus. As a result, a number of doctors then re-appeared, having made various discoveries. That was the beginning of an eye-opening for me and others. A strange thing started occurring: doctors who had effectively come up with solutions for managing the virus, and who had evidence of that, were mocked, maligned, and undermined…by who? Mainstream media. It became easily apparent that any doctor who didn’t “fall in line” with the narrative pushed by same media endured the same fate.

My eyebrows at that point were raised allllll the way up. I was now questioning some assumptions: weren’t we all about reducing the number of infections and deaths? Wasn’t that our main goal around the globe? Isn’t it supposed to be? So why would some voices be silenced and not given airtime? Worse, why were these doctors receiving death threats??? Well, it certainly made NO sense to me, a commoner. It made me question who at the top of all this were allowing for these things to happen; made me question who considered themselves elite enough to drive the prevalent narrative and destroy any attempt at free thought. It brought back to me memories of books we’d read in high school: 1984 and Animal Farm. Like I said, I was left with way more questions at the peak of COVID this year.

Long story short, that was the beginning of the healthy skepticism that I (and as I would discover later, many others) developed toward the media that we’d always assumed were on our side. Same wariness with many in power. It is perhaps apt to consider 2020 the year in which everything has been turned on its head. A year of reset and rediscovery. One thing’s for sure: nothing is as it seems. Yet, I also know that all will be revealed, and soon. We are truly living in fascinating times, guys! So folks, for me, I will end my post this way, humming away at the tune while I think of the words: “Tis the season to be a skeptic, fa la la la la la la la la.”

What is it your season of?

Either way, I fully look forward to the Christmas season, remembering all that matters in this life: to love and be loved. I hope you have a most Merry Christmas!

©2020, WriTEswAY