I had a get together with Redhead and my eldest daughter this morning and one thing I can say with great certainty is that 2020 changed to world as we know it and there is no coming back from it.
This is the year that changed our perceptions of what is normal. It created an atmosphere of mistrust and division, unlike any year in history. It created sides. I don't mean taking a side like we do when we support our favourite sporting team or whether or not we support abortion or the existence of multiple genders. This is the year that fractured society, families and friendships.
We went from being fundamentally united to fundamentally divided. And I do not believe that there is a road back to unity.
Fortunately, we three are united in family despite being disunited by political opinions. 2 out of 3 love Trump - one does not. While my daughter is a hundred miles from us in terms of our belief and love for Trump, she is not a million miles away. We still have a bridge over which we can walk and hold hands, hug and talk about normal things.
Yet so many people today are now in a situation where bridges are being burned and decisions made that are terminal when it comes to the united front of the family unit.
I watched the first episode of a documentary about the Great Fire of London back in 1666. As most people who attended a school before the great awoke movement took control of our education systems across the world, the Great Fire of London started in a bakers shop in Pudding Lane. A stray spark from the embers of the bakers oven ignited a fire in the building and it quickly spread to the neighbouring houses and buildings. As it spread, the then Mayor of London was asked to intervene: would he instruct the city to demolish some houses in order to create a fire break? He said no. The fire was nothing that could not be put out by a woman " pissing " .
His dismissal of the immminent danger saw the entire city decimated by a tornado of flames and saw his career in the proverbial toilet. To the Londoners of that era, his career was of little importance to them. They had lost their homes, their businesses, their incomes and their communities because of his dismissive irresponsibility.
One thing that struck me, watching the documentary, was how one event that ignited the fire and set it out of control was the wind that built up on that fateful evening.
When the wind hit, the fire went from a crawl to a stampede of horror and at that precise moment, London was lost.
I could not help but think that the election in the now disunited states of America was the wind that has now set in motion a fire of destruction across the Western World and that we may not be able to prevent it spreading and destroying our homes, businesses and communities.
We, here in Australia, have been fighting stray embers of bushfires, droughts, social and political division and identity politics for decades. The same in America and New Zealand and Canada and Europe.
So far, we have been able to keep the fires at bay.
The Black Lives Matter and Antifa, Greens, Leftist Activists and Socialists have all been wanting to fan the fire but, until now, they have been only able to muster up the odd gust of wind and the occasional breeze.
Yet, this week the electoral fraud and attempted coup in America has put a giant fan on the fires that have broken out around the world and we are now in a firestorm of unimmaginable proportions.
This fire is now out of control.
I hear that President Trump was expecting this. That he put in place a watermark that was capable of identifying the fraud that is now taking place.
But my concern is this.
Now that the embers have grown from spot fires to a full on blaze from Hell ( and I use the capital letter deliberately) will he be able to stop the spread?
Or is it too late to stop the blaze of destruction?
As we three sat in the comfort of Redhead's home this morning, supposedly immune from the embers, the tongues of fire that are licking at the walls of democracy and normalcy, I could not help but wonder.
No matter what happens, there is no going back. The people who legitimately vote these days and still believe that their voice matters are deluded.
Our innocent, friendly and loving intelligent conversation this morning is shortly going to be a thing of the past. A past where it was OK to disagree and still hug. A world where it was fine to come from different ends of the political spectrum yet still love and protect and care about each other.
A world of a yesterday that will be gone forever.
It concerns me that 2020 has been used, manipulated and distorted to create division and uncertainty, fear and distrust. Covid was the ember that grew into a fire and spread to become a maelstrom.
This election debacle in America, in my opinion, marks the day that the fire went from being under control to out of control and we are now in for a very different future.
What is rebuilt, like London in 1666, is up to what happens next.
Let's hope our town planners come from the right side of town.
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