Do The Uncommon In This Uncommon Year

We’ve reached the midpoint of 2020. How’s your year been so far?

It’s not the midpoint of the pandemic. Nor is it the midpoint of the battle over racial equality, which has been going on for hundreds of years. Neither of them are likely to end on December 31. Things could get worse before they get better. Maybe we’ll get hit by a giant asteroid. Don’t bad things happen in threes?

Just getting through this year won’t fix things. So, while you’re dealing with the new reality of wearing masks and maintaining distance, be sure to make the most of this wonderful time of year.

I was reminded of that on a bike ride the other day. As I coasted through a neighborhood around dinner time, I smelled brats heating on a grill nearby. I was suddenly hungry and it made me smile. Why does food cooked by someone else always smell better. Maybe it’s just me.

This is such a great time of the year where we live. The days are at their longest and the daytime temperatures have not yet been turned to broil. We don’t get a lot of days like these and we wait all winter for them. So enjoy them before they are gone. To think of all the years I couldn’t wait for this time of year only to work right through them and realize too late that I had let them pass by.

Some things haven’t changed. The seasonal fruits and vegetables are starting to appear. Nectarines and peaches are in. The rush of local vegetables are just around the corner. And the rains we’ve had in these parts have been almost ideal.

Some things are coming back, even if very slowly. Concerts in Central Park are returning, albeit with spacing requirements. And there will be fireworks on July 4. The cool thing about that is, in Red Wing, you can view fireworks from many locations, ensuring social distancing.

This summer you’re likely to see a lot of home improvement projects. New roofs, siding, driveways. It seems incongruous that this would be happening when times are bad. But interest rates are low and if you’re stuck at home you can monitor the work or even do it yourself.

So, how will you remember 2020? As that terrible year of the pandemic? Or will you remember it as the year you went fishing for the first time in 15 years? Maybe you want to just sit in the shade of a tree and read a book or take a nap. So, do it. If there was ever a year to do the uncommon, this is the uncommon one to do it.

This might be the year of personal reflection, when you really think about what is important in life. Just how important is it to own a lot of stuff? Can you survive a year without pro sports? Maybe this is the year to try different things. Maybe learn how to walk again. See the neighborhood up close. Wave to neighbors you don’t know. Learn something new. Try cooking something you’d never considered trying.

How many years have you complained that every summer weekend was already scheduled before winter was even over? This is your year to set your own schedule. The pandemic provides an automatic excuse. Are you really going to miss that annual family reunion where you don’t know most of them and really don’t want to visit with the ones you do know? Have a leisurely picnic in a park with just your own family, eating food you prepared instead of fast food.

Think back to the things you did in the summer as a kid. Ride a bike all over town just to see what people are doing. You may be surprised by the people that wave hello. Go swimming in that secret pond you and your friends found as kids. Fly a kite on a bluff top. Heck, live dangerously and play with those banned lawn darts you didn’t know what to do with.

Right now, the world as we know it is getting a huge update. Maybe it’s a much need one. We don’t know what it will be like when it reboots. But don’t wait to find out.

Be a kid again and do something uncommon.