Our Roaring Twenties

On New Years Eve 2019, many gathered together to celebrate the turn of the decade with much excitement at  1920s inspired theme related parties a plenty.  As many a New Year before, these party-goers as well as those like myself who were more contemplative in nature looked forward to the year approaching with hopeful expectations and an exuberance of what may come yet this one seemed filled with a higher degree of mirth for we were all moving into the "Twenties" and images of the former flapper era of probition and speak-easies abounded.  

Then, only a scant three months later, in March of 2020, the world as we knew it came crashing around us, all that we had clung to as normalcy was dissipated as we all ventured forth into the new reality of pandemic life.  As the year progressed, more darkness seemed to come ravaging in one upon the other and it seemed as if the very natures of good and evil were battling outright before our eyes.  Many in the United States (my country) were outraged and devastated, with the utter despair of losing not only what they had expected based on the image of "The Roarin'Twenties" but also with the loss of all that they had clung to externally as security.  With that, the battle deepened not just outwardly but at the threat of having to look within at oneself, many sought ways to distract and busy themselves in the new reality, which, for some, came about with wanting to point fingers with blame.

Now, there is a time and a place for that, yes, however, what I wish to express today is that although our "twenties" may not have seemed to appear as we had longed for yet due to the array of craziness that we have experienced with more to follow, can we not see that we are truly living in our own version of the Roarin' Twenties?

If we get in the time traveling machine of our imagination, let's examine what life was like truly during the 1920s.  On one hand, there was a sense of prosperity economically, however, fragile and based on control, which came crashing down on that fateful black tuesday of October 1929.  Have we not had our fair share of Tuesdays black, or rather dark, full of hardship in the last year and a half? Moreover, the government sanctioned prohibition on all alcohol as illegal brought its own tumult and division among the countries.  Yes, it brought on the glamour we so fantasy about with the flapper girls, the speak-easys, the jazz music, all with its danger and intrigue? Yet, there was danger, there was division, those who were law-abiding and for the ban on alcohol and those who were not. A country divided, sound familiar?  

Perhaps the 1920s were the precursor to our Twenties A-Roarin, in that, all of our past, collectively and individually, builds upon each other and hardship not dealt with will continue to increase, deepen, until it can no longer be contained and outward it flows, rampaging all that comes into its path, personally and corporately.

Yeah, that's right.  So, what is the answer when hardship approaches, as it always does? For myself, these last two years have been ones of intense growth professionally and personally as those two merge, as well as healing and inner peace.  No stranger to turmoil from my past history of a Bipolar breakdown, fleeing a marriage of intimate partner violence, and deconstructing from a disastrous cult, 2020 was in itself not something to be feared but instead faced. 

Thus, with that mindset, I continued forward, refusing to scream "FU" but to enjoy my time to rediscover and create for myself a life built on healthy thriving.  For if we strike out angrily at the circumstances of life, thus we shut down and are stagnant, unable to continue, but if we embrace all of the craziness of life, both positive and negative, we will endure and in our perseverance, find our thrive, our wholeness, and our peace.