Happy Holidays!
Thank you for all your support and encouragement over this past year. I wish you and yours a very happy holiday and all the best for the New Year!
Anyone that has spent time in the high arctic over winter knows that feeling of reaching the tipping point when you suddenly notice the sun begin to strengthen. That first moment when you feel the tide of darkness bottom out and begin to turn. I believe that, just as we are rounding the corner on the darkest day of the year, we also have reached the bottom of this pandemic darkness — the darkest hour just before the dawn.
Politicians and public health officials will fight this all the way. Change is hardest for those who have staked their identities and careers on a failing ideology - they will be the last to turn. And the noises made by the majority will grow more shrill as they sense their numbers begin to dwindle. But at the margins, in the privacy of living rooms and in the unfiltered spaces out on the street, the mood has already begun to shift. The darkness has already begun to recede.
Everywhere I look I see noses starting to pop out of masks. I see people cautiously breaking social distancing rules. I see people rolling their eyes at the frightened folks. I see people refusing boosters. I hear the jokes growing louder and more daring, calling out the absurdities and hypocrisies.
And, most of all, I see people starting to tune out the government and start talking about all the things that matter in their private lives, which have been put on hold for 2 years, like family and the future and what color to paint the bathroom. Dissent is slowly being normalized. Slowly and subtly, the spell is losing its power. Millimeter by millimeter we are gaining ground.
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” ― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
I wish you all a wonderful holiday season. May 2022 bring a new dawn after a long darkness!
Warmest regards,
Julius
Looking back I see that it was early September when I first saw the light ahead - it was the day when I first read 'The Snake Oil Salesman COVID-Zero Con'. That piece remains the best presentation of the pandemic I've seen, and there are now many other valuable sources confirming your message but none as thorough or comprehensive. I have not wintered in the high arctic but I've been snowbound in my little cabin in the woods overlooking Arrow Lakes where our first child was born. We were neighbors in your home Province of BC. I, like you came into the world on a small family farm. A traditional sustainable organic horses and mules farm in San Diego CA. Leaving Nakusp, BC with our son my wife and I relocated to the coast mountains of southern Oregon where we raised our kids on our 10 acre riverside farm. Ours was the first 'Oregon Tilth' certified organic farm in Coos County, Oregon. For the past quarter century we've been living in a tiny surf town in Costa Rica where the sun shines daily in a clear, clean, bright blue sky. We have a guest cottage and you're welcome to a tropical holiday anytime. Hammock included. Eternal thanks Julius for your seminal work and Seasons Greeting to you and yours.
After 2 years, some are coming out of hibernation. I find myself holed up with my animals too, because most of my friends are jabbers, but found out I have several who are not or don't care. They started coming by in August, just as the bad one arose, but no one cared. They kept coming and sending others over and now I have a growing circle of true friends, who come no matter what.