On January 1, 2020

January 1, 2020
by Angela

The sun is up on the first day of a new year. All the yapping about a new decade took me back a few years.

Do you remember the hysteria in the last few months of 1999, when the over-educated, the misguided, and the crazed conspiracy theorists joined forces to predict and prepare for worldwide chaos?

There would be massive technology and equipment failures because anything computer driven couldn’t support the digits 2-0-0-0. The supply chain would break down entirely: nothing on grocery store shelves (better hoard not only food but toilet paper), no prescription medicine (better order antibiotics online from Mexico—honestly, that’s what some well meaning soul said to me), no public utilities (better chop wood and collect rainwater, then figure out how to purify it), no working hospital equipment (better not need an emergency appendectomy), no way to communicate (better get that short-wave radio running). Oh, yes, and figure out how to open your garage door manually and stock up on charcoal because your stove won’t work. And let’s not forget rioting in the streets. All of this anomie would begin to befall us on the stroke of midnight—not exactly the correct use of that Sociology 101 term, but close enough.

Life as we know it neither ended nor descended into worldwide chaos at 12 on January 1, 1999. Fireworks welcomed the new year as usual across the international dateline long before we did here on the East Coast of the US. Our friends across the pond survived the turn of the century before the clock struck midnight at my house. So, sitting in front of the TV that night to watch the worldwide celebration, I felt quite safe and confident, thank you.

I remember as a child having difficulty with the construct of a year that began with “2.” Now people are fretting about 2020. May I remind you Nervous Nellies, politely and respectfully, that in the Jewish calendar, we’re long past 2020. 3,760 years past, if my numbers are correct.

Please, prognosticators of doom, give it a rest. All may not be right with the world (it never has been, has it?), but God’s in His heaven nonetheless. So one day at a time, one foot in front of the other, onward and upward.

I leave you with that beautiful sunrise and wish each of you every possible blessing in the coming year and in the years to come after that.

18 thoughts on “On January 1, 2020”

  2. Mary Hart

    A joyous new year to you and your family. How well I remember the hissy fits re. the turn to 2000. My computer husband just thought it was nothing more than unsubstantiated mass hysteria and laughed at it. An appropriate response, I thought!

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  6. Bernice

    I am in the tech field and we were feverishly updating and testing all production programs. My husband works for the state. At 6 am he had to ride around with another coworker for potential problems. After a few hours he was home. The state canceled the emergency crews. That was so over kill. Updating our programs made sense for our calculations. But never thought civilization was going to end!!

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  8. markbierman

    Yes, I remember quite well the hysteria caused by good old Y2K,. 🙂 And the (for some) panic in 2012 . . . I’m sure those Mayans were looking down and fist bumping eachother for pulling off one of the greatest pranks in history. LOL!

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