2020 Card-vent Calendar: December 21

December 21, 2020:

1992 CMA Country Gold #34 Willie Nelson

I get the feeling that we're all collectively afraid to exhale before making it to the end of 2020 and crossing a few days of 2021 off the calendar.  The popular conceit at the moment is that next year couldn't possibly be worse than this one, but could it be that some of us are headed toward the new year with too much confidence?  I mean, last night I watched a commercial during a WWE show that had wrestlers beating up a cartoon, anthropomorphized 2020.  Might it be somewhat haughty to depict Roman Reigns Superman punching, Seth Rollins curb stomping, and Nia Jax body slamming an oozing, fart-stinking 2020 onto a garbage can?  It feels like we might be tempting the gods of 2021 for behaving in such a fashion.

What I propose is this.  Let us not overplay our hand.  Let's get a couple of weeks into 2021, and if no national tragedies (aside from the ongoing one) occur, then we can breath our sigh of relief.  I'm calling it the Willie Nelson Doctrine.  If you groggily wake up on January first to the news that Willie Nelson has passed away unexpectedly in the wee hours, we're all fucked.  However, every day that Willie makes it gives us a three percent rise in the probability that the upcoming year will be a vast improvement.  This gives us about three months to gauge our status as a human race.  You may have a really bad day in late April, things may feel like they're crashing down around you, but you can take comfort in the fact that Willie Nelson is alive and kicking.  Let Willie be the barometer of our species.  To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, "A world with Willie Nelson is a fine place, and worth fighting for."