I know not everyone is able to share this sentiment, but from my perspective, 2021 was actually quite a fantastic year.  I admit that we were quite fortunate to have not faced a lot of the trials that impacted others.  Luck, circumstance, perspective and attitude make a huge difference, of course, as do flexibility and acceptance.  Kathy & I are happy, positive people with a good outlook on life, a sense of adventure, and it doesn’t take a lot to make us happy.

What matters to us most are three things: (1) are we healthy?, (2) are our family and friends healthy and safe? and (3) can we pay the bills?  The first two have gotten a little complicated lately, but we deal. The “New Normal?”  Nah, that’s just Life.  And in the words of (Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon made famous by) Mr. Sinatra, “as funny as it may seem, some people get their kicks stompin’ on a dream. But I don’t let it, let it get me down ’cause this fine old world, it keeps spinnin’ around.”

This is not intended to be a political or philosophical post, but I think what gets a lot of people down is that they pay too much attention to shit that doesn’t affect them.  Kathy & I remain peripherally aware of current events, just enough to know what big things are happening in the world.  We spend very little time on (anti)social media, stay mindfully aware of and avoid the hysteria boobytraps that lurk there.  Yes, we’re aware of all the boogeymen (and boogeywomen?) out there, but for the most part the idiot politicians, celebrities and bazillionaires (real and imagined) have very little direct impact on our life or our happiness.  And hand wringing about things that are out of our control is pretty much pointless.  Play on!

We’ve traveled, mindfully and – where necessary – carefully.  We drove over 22,000 miles, visited 12 new states, met some new friends and caught up with some long-time friends.  We even took our first cruise in nearly 2 years.  And I took over 16,000 photos – not quite as much as 2000 but almost!  Some of the precautions and protocols inspire a forehead slap or an eye roll.  But if it needs to be done to do what we want to do?  Roll with it and move on.  Complaining about it just makes you look like another idiot – not the image we want to present to the world.

So anyway, I took some photos.  I don’t generally feel the need for a “My Year In Review” retrospective, but it is sometimes interesting to go back and look at what I saw and aimed my camera at.  I don’t try to a “Best Of” or even a “Favorites” post, because as we discussed on Joe’s Blog a few weeks ago, the selections tend to change every time we look.  I’ve long contended that for most people the quality of the memory is more important than the technical quality of the photograph.  Which is why you see so many cell-phone-out-of-car-window photos, selfie sticks and other various head scratchers.

I chose a group of photos that show my year.  I didn’t even limit them to 21 (as in the year 2021).  Some of them are pretty good technically, some of them might even be OK artistically.  But mostly they say, I was here and this is what I did/saw/felt/experienced.  And ultimately it doesn’t get a lot better than that.

Kathy & I send our sincerest wishes to everyone for a healthy, happy, amazing and fulfilling 2022!