Every 10 years, there’s this thing we do in the United States that is critical for allocations of funding from the federal government. That “thing” is called the Census, and it’s going on right now. The COVID-19 pandemic and the quarantine may have slowed efforts to get it completed, but the process must continue; and so it is.

Sing gently... as one Premiering on YouTube exactly one month ago, on July 19, 2020, was a most amazing choral performance with singers from all over the world.

Here we are, entering the sixth month of a global pandemic, and in many places, conditions are getting worse rather than better. I don’t think anyone wants to have another shutdown of businesses, factories and services; I certainly don’t. What will it take to get this thing under control? My brain says: “Everyone just needs to be smart and do their part.”

Hanging around grandkids gives us reasons (or excuses!) to enjoy doing some of the things we haven’t done since our own kids were little, or maybe since we were children ourselves. Things like: • catching fireflies; • running through a sprinkler; • letting your toes squish through mud; • swinging so high you feel like you could touch the sky; • standing in the rain and catching raindrops on your tongue; • waiting anxiously for a parade with a plastic bag to fill with candy; • making soap bubbles, trying to see who can make the biggest or the most in one slow-blow; • watching a caterpillar crawl, and not worrying about what you really “should” be doing; • squatting by a stream to catch minnows or watch a spinning bug; • reading stories at bedtime, and then being tucked in and kissed goodnight.

Well, I’ve gone and done it. I was asleep at the wheel when it happened, of course, but last week my life’s odometer flipped to another number. A bigger number. An older number. And because of that, I’ve elected to start receiving that monthly paycheck from Uncle Sam. It’s actually my money anyway—money that I’ve been tucking away in a government account, withheld from every paycheck, from every job I’ve ever had, all of my livelong, adult days. It would be more exciting if it wasn’t just one more reminder of how old I am.

Imagine a world where you had to pay a royalty fee every time you sing the “Happy Birthday” song. We actually lived in that world, up until 2016. And who knew? To be clear, the copyright issue actually pertained to “public performances” of the song, not those sung around your dining room table when candles are a’blazing. Even so, the most recognized song in the English language (according to Guinness World Records) went through quite a squabble for many years, all about money.

To say the Class of 2020 got gypped out of their Senior year experience is an understatement as well as an overstatement. Everyone knows it. Everyone agrees. Everyone has said it a million times. Everyone feels so bad for the graduates. Everyone went from feeling sad to being straight up mad. In my family, our senior granddaughter in Cheney, a Cardinal cheerleader, first cried her eyes out that State Basketball was halted. I imagine there were tears in Stockton, too, especially since the Tigers had just upset the No. 1 seed and were on a roll. Then came the news that schools were closed down across the state, and the tears flowed again—rivers of tears—thinking about no Prom, no track season, no graduation, no everything.

I can’t wrap my brain around the fact that it is July. In some ways, it’s hard to believe we’re halfway through 2020, even though the coronavirus seemed to put us in slow motion; at least it did early on in the pandemic. Now it seems like everything and everyone is going full-speed ahead, as if the “re-opening” of many places and activities has been like a race to make up for lost time.

Lord, help me be a coffee bean

Country singer Thomas Rhett says he wrote the song, “Be A Light,” last year in response to the negativity and sadness he was seeing in the world. It wasn’t due to be released until sometime next year, but at the urging of Rhett to his label team, the song released March 30, just as the nation was really starting to feel the effects of the coronavirus. The song quickly hit the prestigious Billboard Hot 100 List, landing at No. 71 on April 18.