LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Finally ready for something better

Posted

To the editor:

Did I write this close enough to 2021 to wish the world a happier new year? To wish it for my community of friends and more?

What a year — and what’s to come — will still be hard. “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings …” and there hopefully will be lots of those voices.

My 77-year-old arm is ready. I hope yours is, too. I have had enough.

But I have met the best people — folks I never thought to know — on Zoom. All ages, colors, shapes, pasts and futures. Some sitting. Some standing. Radicals and non, rich and poor. Republicans and Democrats, and those in between.

I have seen the masked and the unmasked. I have shared art and writing and books and ideas. I have tuned into foreign nations with friends, and listened long and hard to their needs and wants.

I am so grateful for this. One of many surprises from this awful time. I have longed for my parents and my long history. I write about it. I read about it. I miss my children — now men — and my grandkids “growing up before my very eyes” (on FaceTime). Since March.

But I have a new community, and new and different goals and wishes to add to my life. I need to sort it all out. I still have time.

I rang in this new year. When I was little, we were awakened at midnight and we hung out of our windows, pajamas covered with winter coats, and we banged pots and pans. Really banged them. And we shouted “happy new year! Happy new year!”

I’m not sure I even knew what that meant. I was already happy. But I know now. I banged my pots and yelled out my window, and was glad that I can.

Judith Veder

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Judith Veder,

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