“ … WHAT DOESN’T KILL ME, MAKES ME STRONGER”
-FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
If you’re reading this final page of American Survival Guide for 2020, you’ve won the big prize! No, I’m not equating our content with winning the lottery or a big Las Vegas jackpot; I’m talking about the fact that you’re still above the ground and living your life.
We often take this immense gift of life for granted. Because we generally encounter so few truly life-threatening risks to our life and well-being, we live almost every day with a lack of real apprehension about whether it will be followed by another and another and a long string of days that extends well over the horizon of our imagination. If you’ve given or received an 18-month calendar as a Christmas gift, you know what I’m talking about (not that a 12-month calendar is any less indicative of a sign of unbridled optimism).