We all said good riddance to 2020, and 2021 lived up to the hopes we placed in it. A long year made up of starts and stops, generally improving from a fearful start to a not-another-variant end that is currently looking as pervasive and dangerous to our health as long-term inflation. Once called pathologically optimistic, I am confident we will bring these threats under control, left to act as prudent, responsible individuals without excessive oversight from our betters.
My purpose in this post is not argument, but to wish that all of you will take the action you need to take to live a full life in 2022 while protecting yourself, as much as is within your power, from the ravages of our known threats, inflation and omicron or whatever new variant we face by year’s end. Keep your list of to-dos long and do them. The puropose of this post is to ask you/invite you to share with us your plans for 2022. Post them here with the contact form or send them directly to me on my e-mail, edward@edwardmasseybooks.com.
2d Chronicles, 15:7, inspired the theme of this post: Be ye strong therefore and let not your hands be slack for your work will be rewarded. The Massey version: Have faith. And do the work. So, please, share with us your plans for 2022, large or small.
Here are mine. To write four hours every day and exercise some. To have an extraordinary 85th (my sister)/80th (me) birthday with her family in Santa Fe. To create, plan, and experience a massive book launch for Forever Sheriff (May 18), the third novel in the High Mountain Sheriffs series. To focus and succeed at brand building. To have faith and do the work in my newly appointed role as Chair of our 55th Reunion at Harvard Business School (already remarkable responsiveness from classmates willing to pull the oars to a stunning victory.) To write a book of short stories for Five Star. To live our summer lives with the Western Writers of America convention in Great Falls and five weeks at Drakes Island, Maine. To celebrate my remarkable wife’s birthday and then on to the holidays. There are some other little buds peeking through the snow. Maybe at year’s end, this blog will mention a few grand experiences I didn’t see coming.
So, to 22 and you. Post away. Like this one, send a photo.
Edward, what an inspiring message!
We’re both fans of to-do lists – I’m still catching up on my final to-do’s from 2021 so I can clear the decks for 2022. I share your optimism and faith that we will get through this time of challenges to our health and also to our democracy. “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”, to quote Nietzche.
I’m so glad to read that you have many oarsmen to help you with your Harvard Business School 55th Reunion. See you there if not before!
I so enjoyed Founding Sheriff and look forward to Fugitive Sheriff. Good luck with your massive book launch of its sequel, Forever Sheriff!
Ed, it’s certainly been a while since we meet at Omega, your post made me smile and reminded me of times gone by. Happy 85th, I just had my 77th. Astonishing how that number and every one since 65 has been more a marker than a birthday of how lucky I’ve been. Last year, saw the postponed wedding of my youngest daughter, covid had subsided enough for us to feel safe-er and all went well. That and avoiding a respirator were my goals in 2021. For 2022 considering the fourth shot, hoping to spend the summers, as I have for the past 16 years in NYC, (missed the last two due to covid and my overly cautious personality when it comes to deadly germs). I go to NYC alone, as my partner is not a city-person and go out all day and night, for two months, jazz clubs, as only NYC can offer me, Blues bars, random plays, (hoping to catch a few) and walking the city I love to photograph. Other bigger plans are afoot, however, this is not the forum to share them. I have been writing, not as disciplined as you, mostly poetry, in bursts, one day two hours, then three days of, telling myself you have another three books to read, then back to the keyboard for a bit. Thanks for “pushing” to write something more than a Facebook post or add another photo to my Insta feed, @travelpoet if you wish to see my work. Be well. Be safe. Enjoy…