by Tom Shafer
December 26, 2021
Okay, so based on the evidence of Christmas/New Year’s posts past, Nostradamus’s reputation as the prognosticator of prognosticators is quite safe for now. As 2019 was coming to an end, I essentially proclaimed good riddance to a year that had brought tornadoes and a mass shooting event to my town (Dayton). I even posited that the beginning of the ‘20s (as in the 2020s) might bring a return to normalcy in so many ways, starting with a presidential campaign that would hopefully purge the current orange occupant of the office. Of course, while I was penning that prediction, a virus was emerging in Wuhan, China, a scourge that would wreck all of 2020, killing millions across the world and savaging every economy.
So, as the calendar turned to 2021, I hoped for and predicted an end to the pandemic (based on vaccines producing herd immunity) and a return to civility in general (after President Biden’s win in November). Unfortunately, my hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for both memory and forecasting, which can create a problem for memory) failed me again, but who could have foreseen not one but two variants to the COVID virus, both which challenged the vaccines and new convalescents. AND, who could have anticipated a third of the country effectively rejecting these miraculous offerings from science, thus keeping us from achieving the immunity necessary for ending our collective horror. And as for civility, that coffin was sealed a mere five days after the New Year, when Trump supporters attacked and wrecked the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the presidential election results. As the year progressed, so did our polarization, seemingly every issue (voting rights, criminal justice, climate, education, common sense) acting as just another wedge to our increasingly fragile democracy. Frankly, I’m not sure how America remains standing today.
So, as we teeter here on the precipice of a new year, 2022, I have all but retired my prognostication bonnet (I always utilized the bonnet for divination because I had no other use for it). I’m sure I’ll play some golf, do a little writing, eat some food, drink some beer, breathe some air, and win another fantasy football league championship, but outside of those daring predictions, I have no thoughts on what may happen with and in the world writ large. Oh, there will be some political shenanigans and tomfoolery, some history will be made somewhere, some sports teams and individuals will win while others will lose (with some stupid ties in soccer), and weather will do some stuff, but other than predicting that this will be the last “some” that I word-process in this bluster, I’ve got nothing else.
However, if you are desperate for a personal forecast for the impending year, I suggest you consult your local medium or try Kasamba.com – perhaps the ethernet stirs up those significant psychic energies coursing throughout our realm. Or maybe you can watch those morning news and entertainment shows; lots of on-air “mystics” will tell you what to look forward to in 2022. As for me, given my past record, it’s pretty obvious that I am one bad soothsayer. But if you are looking for a good one, why don’t you click here for a live version of Buckethead’s “Soothsayer.” If that doesn’t spur your inner Nostradamus, nothing will!
Anyway, here’s hoping that you have a safe, enjoyable 2022, and quoting Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite, that “all your wildest dreams come true.” All of us deserve some good in the coming year.
See, I couldn’t even make a respectable prediction about the word “some” through the culmination of this composition.
Happy New Year!!
