“Next year, all our troubles will be miles away.”

Since 2018, I’ve been writing about the lessons I’ve learned during the past year. What 2020 has taught most of us is endurance. How to keep going even when problems seem unending, and there is no hope in sight. But even with the promise of a vaccine and a change in government, hope still seems dim. Hospitalizations and deaths have shot up, lockdowns are crushing businesses, and politics seem even more chaotic than before the elections. It’s like being adrift at sea with the shoreline in sight, but the tide keeps pushing you out, and you don’t know if you can last long enough to reach land.

I turn to music at times like these. This year, my song is “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” from the 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Most of us know of the song from the more upbeat covers that talk about “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.” But listen to the original from the movie. The tone is different.

This is at a down moment in the story where the family might move away from their home in St. Louis (and away from their friends and the older daughters’ budding romances). Judy Garland’s character tries to offer hope that things may be better next year, even though she has no assurance they will be. If this song isn’t poignant…