Week 48: Another Year Over…Thank Fuck!
It’s almost time to put 2020 to bed and usher in a New Year; one that surely can’t be worse than the one we’ve just endured.
But that very theory might be sorely tested in the first quarter of the year. As I write, last night’s Premier League game at Everton was postponed at the eleventh hour because of positive Covid tests in the Manchester City squad. 7 (seven) games are off in League One alone for the same reasons. It’s likely that – with growing infection numbers and talk of a tier even stricter than the current 4 – we’ll see more games cancelled and the football season, like life in general, disrupted beyond recognition for a few months until the roll-out of the various vaccines are in full swing by about April (I obviously mean 2021 but with this government, you never quite know!)
After the gentle euphoria of getting some fans back, and they are still going to games in tiny pockets of England, another national lockdown or the equivalent appears ominously on the horizon as we move into last days of December. There seems to be no end to the wretched nightmare; a bit like my club, Walsall, during this month; just when it seems that we are beginning to get somewhere, we go to the outskirts of Manchester and everything suddenly looks shite again.
The general mood is that 2020 has been the worst on record. In living memory certainly for the majority of us who thankfully missed the horrors of the last war, it’ll take some shifting from top spot even if the first part of 2021 will feel like much of the same. But it’s important to remember there is hope, and light at the end of the tunnel or whatever metaphor works for you.
We’re almost on the other side. Despite the never-ending waves, the uncertainty, the mass-media-doom-mongering, scientists always ready to throw shade on any optimism, the oaky-cokey approach to lockdowns and some ministers that are about as much use as one of their Nightingale hospitals, we have made it this far. And there might be cause to look back at 2020 and even be thankful for the way – if nothing else – it made us reset our own internal compasses and the way we live our lives.
For my part, since late-March, I’ve religiously exercised – partly thanks to the gift of a Fitbit from my best friend, who passed away during the summer (not from Covid, but he was one of the thousands who were indirectly impacted by it by missing out on vital care for other conditions) – and lost 24kg, as well as being physically fitter than at any point in the last twenty years. I’ve also read (or listened to) ninety-one books in 2020 and my eating and drinking (I’ve seriously cut down on coffee and diary) habits have also changed, as has my tolerance of places offering poor service or making my life even more difficult than it’s been made already. All of this, while perhaps not feeling like it, far offset the loss of earnings because I can hopefully make money from somewhere else, but who knows what health and financial long-term wins I have benefitted from, and will continue to, because of the above changes?
So, even in such horrible times, there are up-sides You just have to find them. And want to find them too because that’s the key thing I’ve learned. It’s up to me. No one else. So, while I’m not great at New Year Resolutions, if I had to make some suggestions for 2021, they’d look a bit like this:
My 3 Don’ts for 2021
1.Don’t Put Things Off
Before Covid, it was easy to put things off until ‘another’ day. Visiting people – relatives especially – fell into this category but they won’t, or shouldn’t, when we are finally allowed to mingle freely with people at some point in the year. Procrastination and indecision are for politicians, and as we’ve seen it rarely makes things better. One regret I have about 2020 is that, when faced with adverse weather, I put off meeting my friend at his place of work (he did tours around a working mill) and never got the chance to. In future, to borrow a tagline from a sports company, I’m just doing it.
2.Don’t Take Things For Granted
We can easily fall into the trap of thinking that things will always be there but this year has taught us that they won’t and made us appreciate things in a whole new light. Or some of us. In the same way that certain football clubs have used the pandemic to alter their focus and see their fans in a different way, others have been less forthcoming (no names but some haven’t even sorted the season ticket refunds for last season yet). Rather than assume that we know who we’re dealing with and what they’ll do, let’s give them a chance to show or tell us.
3.Don’t Give Up So Easily
Marcus Rashford will be remembered as a face of 2020. One of the reasons (apart from his goals) will be because he took on the UK Government over the issues of free school meals. While he was able to use his status and name to an extent in ways not everyone can, he also did something that we can all learn from and that is to persevere. He was told ‘no’ on more than one occasion but didn’t give up or shrug his shoulders; every rejection simply made him even more determined to succeed. He shouldn’t be credited with forcing Boris into another U-turn (that was the easy bit; he did about three per week at one stage) but because he got him to make a phone call himself rather than say it via that ‘Downing Street Spokesperson’ like virtually every other difficult message.
My 4 Dos for 2021
4.Do Be Kinder To Others
Like Brexit and Boris, the virus has a polarising effect on people. It makes us entrenched in our views or ways and that often is at odds with others. It should, and yet might with luck, make us that bit nicer and kinder to others because we’ve nearly all been impacted in one way or another (be it losing loved ones or losing our livelihood or both) and that should make us more understanding and empathetic of the plight of those around us. When fans go back to stadiums, this is something to bear in mind; while some supporters will just be glad to be rid of the restrictions, others might still be fearful or vulnerable and need that extra bit of help, support, encouragement or simply acknowledgement. So give it.
5.Do Be More Prepared
In a year that has felt like a series of giant lurches from one disaster to the next, there is one thing we learn and that is – like the scouts – to be prepared. I recall the restart of football after the first lockdown and it was interesting to say the least. Some clubs looked ultra-prepared, and went off like a rocket, while others were saying they weren’t ready and gave the impression of just having got out of bed. But how can you sleepwalk through this? From the moment that football was paused, what did they think was going to happen next? It was always going to start again, just as life does and will. Covid has been too easy an excuse for anything that doesn’t go right but it shouldn’t be used to compensate poor planning and leadership. Yes, it’s shitty. Yes, it’s hard to predict. But we still know enough to be on the front foot whenever possible and try to stay ahead of the curve rather than find ourselves snookered. The virus alone doesn’t stop us moving forwards, it just puts more hazards in our path; we have to anticipate them and work a way around. It’s hard but not impossible.
6.Do Be More Flexible
Like the Carabao Cup Final, things don’t have to be set in stone. That has been moved in the hope that more fans will be able to attend at the end of April. We too can show higher degrees of flexibility in all parts of our existence – if we want to. Our lives had become so regimented, so structured and so damn full that it reached a stage where it required three weeks’ notice in writing to change anything. Now we’ve had a period of doing less generally, and being unable to do all the things we once did, it gives us a chance also to question if we should have been doing all of them to begin with. We can consider which are priorities, which we enjoy and which we do because….well, because we always have.
7.Do Be More Genuine
The virus has got a bad rap this year, and rightly so. But it isn’t solely the problem. I forever hear things like ‘the virus doesn’t know it’s Christmas’ or ‘the virus doesn’t respect borders’ but we people do know it’s Christmas and we don’t respect borders; or we don’t respect geographical boundaries at least. A woman my wife knows made a trip from a highly infectious (at the time) Tier 3 Nottingham to dine at a restaurant in Tier 2 (at the time) London because she ‘deserved to have a nice meal’. On Christmas Day, people from at least five households posted on social media with pics of their day at her house. Now, that’s her decision and so be it, it’s not my place to judge; the world has enough of us who live in glass houses but are continually lobbing stones. However, I also know that she is the first person to complain about others who don’t abide by the rules. She’s far from the only one. We all have a choice on how we behave, but we can also take responsibility for our actions too. Don’t say one thing and do another – and don’t hide behind the virus. It doesn’t know that we’re being disingenuous.
If we want one more positive, it’s that this annus horribilis is not only nearly over but that, soon, the virus’s impact on us is approaching its first anniversary. Back in March, how many of us thought we’d still be in such a mess? We thought we’d never survive a few weeks, let alone months. But now, almost a year on, we’ve stuck in there despite the tremendous impact on daily lives, and the unimaginable loss of lives (a dear Aunt of mine died in November from it and it was shocking how quickly it took hold), and we’re still standing. Still moving forward and now with something to look ahead to that might just end this nightmare.
Whatever 2020 had in store for you, if you’re reading this then you can still claim at least one victory because you’re here and ready to enter another year with hopefully the same levels of determination, grit, pragmatism and resolve; maybe even more using what you’ve learned so far.
So, all the very best for 2021 and hopefully see you at the end of the tunnel.
words Darren Young, D3D4 columnist