2024 was an evolving year for our family and for the country. Early in the year we took advantage of the season to meet friends in Southern Italy. It was a perfect combination of socializing part of the time and then an equal time by ourselves after making it to the beautiful town of Antibes, France. Shortly after returning home to face the decision of continuing to improve our 1,700 sqft home in Athens, Georgia, or give up on it and go through the process of selling and moving.
After seeing a few houses available we decided that the only
way to do it would be to move into the county and leave the urban setting behind. It was a tough decision but now looking back,
it was the best decision. The bulk of
the Spring, Summer and Fall was focused on selling, buying, fixing, improving,
moving and enjoying our accomplishments for the year. Instead of celebrating in the new home, we
celebrated in SE Europe visiting a few new countries ensuring we would arrive
here in time for the 2024 election. As
it turned out, we should have stayed a few extra weeks in Europe as our vote turned
out to be not that necessary.
And here we are, facing 2025 just days ahead. Will this be a repeat of the COVID years or a
big improvement after learning how to run a country for 4 previous years. We remain with our fingers crossed and hoping
that the nation survives what we have ahead.
After visiting that part of Europe one comes with the feeling
that is not only the USA that is veering to the right. One fellow we met in Brasov, Romania was telling. He had lived in the USA for a few years but
never really freed himself from the chains of not securing a permanent resident
status. He met a Romanian woman and
married her. A few years later they
already had two daughters in Florida with one of them ready for elementary school. Early in the school year the parents learnt
that the school teacher, a woman, was married to another woman, and that this
is legal and almost promoted, according to them. That was the needle that broke the camel’s
back as it made them decide to travel back to Romania to raise their daughters
in a more conservative environment.
America could have been the land of opportunity, but it came with a cost
too steep for them.
That was just one personal experience but when you look at
the global map, it seems that people are getting more concerned about
differences and changes. Are we getting
to a point of maximum capacity in the world?
There seems to be less interest in helping strangers or even former
friends that now differ from your views?
There seem to be more interest in religious beliefs, although that seems
contrary to the notion of helping others in need, unless they are from your own
clan. I don’t know. It’s confusing. I just know that I still rather be living in
2025 than in 1925 or even 1725. Let’s
not go too far back as we may encounter that most of us will not be in the smaller
privileged groups of the past. Good luck
with that.
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