If you were thinking there couldn’t be a worse year than 2020, think again. There were some really amazing things that happened in the midst of all the coughing and the holding in of coughs and the political freak-outs and the extrovert freak-outs and even the regular everyday mentally-challenged freak-outs. No matter what country you live in, you likely had a mixture of all of the above.
By the way, by extrovert freak-outs, I mean it was a great year for introverts. While extra-verts, a.k.a. extroverts were wigging out because they couldn’t mingle as much as they loved, introverts were saying, “They want me to stay in my house and keep my distance from others? It’s what I was born to do.”
No patience for the year-in-review articles of others, I had to make my own. Even Dave Barry, whose articles are usually quite entertaining, was mostly political this time around, and political is the equivalent of unfunny. Not that reviews have to be funny, but this is Dave Barry we’re talking about. You know, the funniest guy in journalism. Well, as they say, no one can always bat one thousand.
One thing that was kind of funny about 2020 was that there were so many sports arenas without sports, and so few people even talked about it. I mean, all year, the same people I know who would talk endlessly about their sport team, had nothing to say. I should be honest, and admit they had very little to say…until Chadwick Boseman died. Then everything turned to how good Chadwick was, and it was like a dream come true for all of us who get sick of hearing people talk about sports and politics every second of every day (although, in my opinion, sports talk is far better).
Chadwick was the highlight of 2020. And before you say, “Yeah, but he died.” Not only is that a very provincial view, but it’s a shallow view as well. One could at least wax optimistic and easily say, “At least we had him for some of the year.” Chadwick is a Christian, so to die after having done so much for everyone he could is the ultimate compliment. Not only was he a great man, but he left us stories of his good deeds in the middle of a year full of news that was difficult to stomach. News agencies are notoriously scandal-focused, but when Chadwick passed, we saw all those agencies turn their focus on the goodness in humanity.
Included with the great stories of great men, we had some top-notch science going on also. There was a study which discovered spraying water in a fine mist can produce hydrogen peroxide. There is no doubt this is a valuable discovery in light of recent events.
In other science news, still helpful, was the discovery of the ability to genetically engineer tomatoes as a source of a drug used in helping people suffering with Parkinson’s disease. This and the previous science news were found on the Science Daily web site. The idea for this one was to make an efficient way for undeveloped countries to have an efficient and inexpensive source of the drug for Parkinson’s. In my mind it could be an efficient way for everyone on the planet to receive the drug. Plus, who could argue with drug production that could also produce the ingredients for a pizza?
Psychology studies in 2020 were off the charts. It was amazing to many scientists that during a pandemic, with people in quarantine—with no one requiring anything of them—those people still altered their clocks. Twice in the same year, people followed the same pointless tradition of “Daylight Saving Time”, even though they didn’t have to answer to anyone but themselves. Psychologists are still trying to figure out why.
Lastly, there was brief, and in my opinion too brief, mention of alien spacecraft during 2020. The only thing remaining throughout the year was that if you ever got tested for C19 then you know what it’s like to have your orifices invaded during an alien abduction. Hahahahahahaha!
Xenosthesia.com 