A hit-and-miss A to Z guide for what 2021 might have in store

Country Living with Francis Farragher

As I try and prepare an alphabetical wish list for 2021, the onus is on all of us to embark on what will probably be a vain search for shafts of hope through any remaining reserves of positivity and light humour that might still be surviving within us. We’ve been blitzed, fatigued and knocked over with bad news and restrictions, so from the midst of this cesspit of pessimism and hopelessness, let’s take a slightly brighter look (well kind of) at what we might aspire to in 2021. The caveat though has to be added that it’s written more in hope than in expectation.

A is for always realising that there’s a life to be lived out there even when everything seems to be going wrong. Always keep in mind that there will be time – somewhere into the future – when those of us lucky enough to be still around will say: “How many years ago was it since the country was closed down with the COVID?”

B is for ballistic and all the times in the last nine months that you said: “I’ll go ballistic if I hear another news bulletin bringing us more bad news about our plight.” There are only so many times you can go ballistic within a given time-span and at this stage we’ve all exhausted our quotas.

C is for all us Catholics and Christians who have had to get used to doing without our usual measure of formal worship at the weekends. The upshot of this is that most of us have had to ‘deal directly’ with The Boss, and that in its own peculiar way might be no bad thing.

D is for all the devious little distractions we’ve had to come up with to pass those endless hours that otherwise might be spent in sorting out the affairs of Church, State and The World in ‘The Parliament of the Local’, where critical decisions are made before gleefully being washed down with some light ale and then forgotten about.

E is for enjoying the great outdoors, if for no other reason, than there’s nothing else for doing these days. In the same vein, E is also for the effort required to leave the warm fire and go for a walk or a cycle on a cold December’s evening.

F is for forlorn, in the context of having a good ‘knees up’ on Paddy’s Day when we’ll all be parading again and toasting each other with green beer. The forlorn bit though clicks in as regards what year this will be – maybe 2022?

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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