In Like A Lion

Let's face it, 2020 arrived more like this scary-ass, ferocious, "I think I'll eat your head off" lion, bent on ripping us apart limb by limb...

... than the gentle cub featured on this 2021 Nature Conservancy calendar I've already received in the mail. According to my current Nature Conservancy calendar, which claims it's already July, but I'm choosing to ignore that fake intel, we're still stuck in the dark jungle of 2020. Isn't it a little early to be sending me next year's calendar? I mean, don't those usually show up toward the end of the year, as in, here's this lovely "free" calendar, cough up some cash if you want to keep getting them? I understand the urge to fast-forward the disaster of 2020, not to mention the magical thinking that 2021 will be an adorable baby lion compared to Covid-2020. I can only imagine how many more of these hopeful 2021 calendars will land in my mailbox and yours in the coming months, tempting us to actually look forward to next year, to start penciling in -- ink would be too unrealistic -- "Get COVID vaccine at CVS," and other exciting events, like all the re-scheduled weddings that got postponed, the restaurant reservations, the Masquerade Bonfires, where we torch our face covers with Fauci's blessings, and of course, the inauguration of our new president, kina hora, poo poo.

And yet, like Elvis says, don't be cruel, Calendar Gods. We've gotta take this thing one day at a time. I'm not opening that 2021 calendar and filling it with false hope. But I'll still give you a donation, Nature Conservancy, no matter what happen.