The Word of the Year for 2020: Denial Ain’t Just a River
They say denial ain’t just a river, but 2020 has been flooded with it. From COVID debunkers to a president who won’t concede the election, 2020 is the crazy man at the podium who refuses to admit his hair dye is running down his temple.
But I don’t even mean all of those obvious dismissals. I have seen myself avoid the truth in much more personal ways this year. It shows up in the things I don’t see, like the piles of manila files that were stacked on the kitchen table for months. They were a reminder of how, like so many others, suddenly one day, my husband stopped going to work. As the months dragged on, the files blocked half the table and made us uncomfortable on the other side. We weren’t necessarily avoiding finding a permanent place for them, but with so much uncertainty, why deal with it?
It’s like the effect that quarantine eating and the reduction of exercise has had on my waistline. Sure I noticed the pounds creeping up, or maybe the scale was broken. Plus, I could justify them because these were special times. I needed comfort. And, if I got sick, the extra pounds might save me. I’m sure they would fall off easily in a few months when this was all over.
I’ve also been soothing myself with a dream of a vacation. We booked a vacation for last June that never happened. Luckily, we can…
