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| David is the one who's kneeling |
Our little family has, so far, been blessed through 2020. We have escaped physical and financial harm at the hands of the “gyna-virus” (as Trump would call it). Our worst symptoms have been inconvenience and disappointment. 2020 was challenging for many but still full of joy for us. Maggie and David were engaged. There is footage of this happy occasion on Instagram. We used to call people and force them to use their imagination. The happy couple also both recently switched to new jobs selling technology. We are expecting that Bandit the dog will soon also be a Business Development Rep for some software company.
Hannah’s work at the TECL lab was changed from interacting with infants into mind-numbing coding of videotaped experiments. The basket of lemons made for some good lemonade. It challenged her to find a way to use a computer and AI software to code the videos. Her breakthrough will hopefully be part of an upcoming academic journal paper as a leading-edge methodology. We are proud of her we just don’t know exactly what for.
Approaching the holidays, Carolyn spent quite a bit of time volunteering at the Women’s Habitat shelter and food bank. Carolyn has a knack for sorting and organizing, and also a passion for helping people. A food bank warehouse is her dream job. In the Summer and Fall we re-planned our cycle tours to our own backyard in Southern Ontario and discovered hidden gems like Northumberland County. Beautiful rolling hills and panoramic vistas and if you tear up a few hundred dollar bills each night and get a rude innkeeper it feels a lot like France.
Of course, other families have not been so lucky this year. They have suffered physical and financial hardship and our hearts go out to victims of the virus and its deputies the Covidiots.
Its hard to say how well we are managing COVID in Toronto. We tend to get Ontario provincial numbers. Actually, It is generally the one number: positive tests today. What I have noticed is that our main goal in Ontario is to be under Quebec’s number. This has its long adversarial history grounded in Montreal’s pro hockey dominance and the Plains of Abraham.
As a country, Canada is performing quite well. Solid B when you look at cases per million people. We are now leading the Germans who have a fully functioning government and a society that balances rights and responsibilities. Canadians are grumpy but happy to not be entwined in the American political healthcare thing that is like the most tangled set of ear buds that you ever pulled out of your pocket. The U.S. makes us look better than we are.
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| It's like golf, lower is better |
We really should be looking at the A+ performer, our favorite commonwealth comparator, Australia. They have less than 10% of the infection rate per capita in Canada.
I don’t want a visit from the “Jews will not replace us” crew, but I am dying to ask… dude, if you want to keep the businesses open, why not wear the damn mask? Maybe that’s what they figured out in Australia?
American friends and family often enquired this year whether Canadians are aware of the political situation in the U.S. Rest assured that we are painfully aware of all of it. This theatrical spectacle may be the final area of true American exceptionalism, as it drives the global news cycle. Maggie, Hannah and I all vote and pay taxes as (dual) U.S. citizens. US politics has been the source of a lot of dinner table conversation in 2020. I would describe it using George Orwell’s text from the visionary 1984 “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing”. We are witnessing it happening frame by frame in disbelief, wondering if there is something more that could be done, should be done, beyond our casting a “highly suspicious” mail-in ballot in the state of Vermont.
Vaccines are dawning. Saved by science. For us in 2021 (don’t tell me it will be 2022) it will hopefully mean more time, better time, with our parents and friends. We will cycle tour in places beyond southern Ontario. Hannah will go back to testing and playing with children in the TECL lab on campus. Maggie will work shoulder to shoulder with her new colleagues and plan a socially proximal wedding. Carolyn will flash the billboard smile in public again and hug everyone, including the Women’s Habitat beneficiaries.
We are not looking forward to seeing you in 2021. We are looking forward to BEING WITH YOU in the new year. Man, I hope it all works.
For outtakes (aka the 'directors cut') from the 2020 xmas letter go here.
