Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m a few weeks early on my “year in review” takes, but I doubt anyone is going to be running to their emails on Christmas and New Year wondering where their links are, so I’m doing this thing today. Everybody from serious journalists to your Aunt Kathy who posts recipes on Facebook is going to put out a retrospective this year, so when you see a roundup of the best “wear your mask” memes remember that I got on this bandwagon FIRST.
There’s no way to encapsulate all that 2020 brought us—honestly, I don’t even really remember last February—but in 5-10 years, the thing I may remember the most is that 2020 made things real. We got smacked in the face by the precariousness of it all. Our politics, our social structures, our economy: these were things that we took for granted and assumed would just… work. 2020 pulled the curtain to the side and showed us that if the man (and its always a man) back there is an idiot, we’re freaking screwed. We all got an up close look at what happens when things at the highest levels are handled poorly, and if you’re anything like me, it left you shook.
And that same jarring real-ness that we saw at the highest levels also caught us closer to home. Being a middle class, white midwesterner, my standard answer for “how’s it going?” has always been an enthusiastic-but-not-necessarily-honest “fine!” Of course I’m fine! What’s there to be not fine about? #tooblessedtobestressed amirite? But in 2020 we all had to come face to face with the reality that we might not actually be fine after all. We had full schedules and places to go and commitments to fill, but when all of that was stripped away, we had a chance to ask some harder questions. Am I fulfilled? Am I living out my values? Am I contributing to the problems or am I part of the solutions?
The folks who either didn’t want to answer those questions or didn’t like the answers they found are the ones who have pushed for “get back to normal” the most. Its like Keanu Reeves trying to plug himself back into the Matrix—people have seen the real world behind what we’ve constructed and want to get back to the warm embrace of perusing the aisles of Bed Bath and Beyond without a mask. Listen, I get it. There’s nothing more comforting than towels on towels on towels, but escaping reality through linen is a slippery slope. Today it’s B B and B, tomorrow you’re filling out your order from the Williams-Sonoma catalogue.
I am welcoming 2021 with open arms—I have no love for 2020 or the havoc it brought with it—but I am doing so with a new perspective. I didn’t like everything I found out about myself this year and I’m glad for the chance to do something about it. Maybe that sounds like high-minded self-actualization and in 6 months I’ll be back to my old consumeristic, virtue-signaling ways, but I hope not. Reality may be tough to swallow, but now that 2020 has forced me to choke it down, I’d like to give it a shot.
Sorry that was so heavy. I promise everything after the break will be LIGHT and CHEERY. To the links!
So I’m just going to offer up my favorite parts of 2020—yes, I said “favorite” and “2020” in the same sentence—in list form rather than breaking it out across categories. I hope you found some new hobbies or interests you loved this year and if you didn’t, try some of these!
Freaking Star Wars, man. 2020 brought us the final season of Clone Wars—an animated series that left fans hanging way back in 2014—with storylines that did NOT disappoint. We also had a bunch of books (a few of them really good!), comics, The Mandalorian season 2, and even a video game. And as awesome as all that was, the future is even brighter. If you’re not into Star Wars, there’s never been a better time to dig in.
Baking bread. I baked no-knead bread, sourdough bread, Japanese milk bread, bagels and a whole lot more. My family got sick of the bread pretty fast, but luckily I have a friend whose family actually loves me and were willing enablers of my newfound baking hobby. Bread has a weird reputation for being hard to make, but its really not so bad and the results are *chef’s kiss*. Get yourself some yeast and get to baking!
Retro-gaming. Look, I know you’re skimming past this right now and rolling your eyes but you are MISSING OUT. Video games nowadays are somehow both expensive AND hard AF. I swear you have to be a cartographer to read the game maps. This year I started playing through all the 2D Zelda titles and it’s just the right blend of challenging and relaxing. The game controls are simple, the storylines easy to follow, and the maps are flat. You know, like… maps.
Bingeing TV. Like everyone else this year, I watched an inordinate amount of TV this year. I just checked my Netflix history since March (the unofficial beginning of the year) and here’s a sampling:
- Love is Blind (10 out of 10 would not recommend. Those were dark days.)
- Tiger King (Holy crap! Remember Tiger King?!)
- Kim’s Convenience (Fun and Canadian! Win/Win!)
- Waco (Good if you want to feel sympathy for a cult)
- Dead to Me (Hot take: season one was better)
- Mucho Mucho Amor (This documentary was bonkers)
- The Last Dance (Do you like Michael Jordan? You won’t anymore!)
- Unsolved Mysteries (I NOW BELIEVE IN ALIENS)
- The Haunting of Hill House (Horror, but make it tragedy)
- Emily in Paris (Obviously I didn’t embrace the real world fully)
- The Crown (Do you like Margaret Thatcher? You won’t anymore!)
And that’s just my Netflix! That’s so much TV! Somehow my wife wrote a WHOLE BOOK (true story!) this year while I apparently just watched TV. Unbelievable. My capacity for sitting around and doing nothing is unparalleled.Online grocery shopping. I may never enter a grocery story again. Our local grocery store made shopping/pick-up so easy at the beginning of the pandemic that I honestly don’t think I can go back. The only thing waiting for me inside grocery stores at this point is Covid and broken self-checkout aisles. No thank you.
Working from home. Working from home is part of what made this year so real. My oldest son turned 10 this year and I really think we’ve spent more time together in the past 9 months than we did his first 9 years. And you know what? It’s great. Not like “we never argue and we always get along” great, but like “these are my most important relationships” great. Working from home is frustrating and exhausting and creating boundaries is really, really hard, but time with my kids—even when I’m SO DONE with them—is irreplacable.
Outside. You know the best place to be when you can’t leave your house? OUTSIDE. This year I took walks, explored creeks with my kids, rode my bike, and even cold weather camped. I re-built my deck and had a patio poured where I could have fires with friends. I even perfected the art of raking my yard (the key is less raking, more leaf mulching). This year our outdoor space was the most important part of our home.
Okay, time for some quick hits:
- Best TV - Ted Lasso - a late entry but SO GOOD. Honorable mention: Clone Wars
- Best Book - The Faithful Spy - (Good) books about Dietrich Bonhoeffer are important. Honorable mention: Home Before Dark
- Best Comic - Justice League - Scott Snyder is next level creative. Honorable Mention: Strange Adventures
- Best Movie - Onward - I can’t watch Pixar without crying. Honorable Mention: Palm Springs
- Best Podcast - The Daily (NYT) - Michael Barbaro is a national treasure. Honorable Mention: Brene Brown “Unlocking Us”
- Best Thing I Read Online - The Losses We Share - Both heartbreaking and inspiring
- Best Moment - Biden/Harris Acceptance Speech
- Best Bread - Japanese Milk Bread
- Best Recipe - Cast Iron Chili
Let me know what you loved/hated about my lists in the comments or just hit that “reply” button on your email. And take a minute to send this on to a friend, would you? I know last week I said all I wanted for Christmas were streaming services, but I’d take a few new subscribers as well.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year to you all. See you in 2021!