One could easily say that the year 2020 should be its own reality tv show. Only problem is that network television can’t find a way to make it exclusive to their respected brand to make any money. It’s like the same way the United States government looks at Prostitution: they wouldn’t be able to find a reliable way to tax it coming and going. So right now, it’s either make it all illegal or legal across the country. Well, except for Nevada. That’s seems to be our only sandbox to play in when it comes to negotiable affections. If planet Earth was a tv channel, it’s much too big to be a sitcom show, it would be only able to fit on God’s cable service. Don’t get me wrong (or started on), YouTube shows it’s daily fill of whimsical nonsense in all varieties and flavors basked in the glory of foolishness and brilliance. Unfortunately, just like any other form of social media, they can dictate what is deemed “appropriate” and what isn’t.
This year is a Heinz 57 of conundrum and catastrophes and the only descriptive words that come to mind is trainwreck, plane crash, natural disaster, sprinkled in with some rage, a dash of carnage, and the icing made of Texas Longhorn Steer manure for texture. The cherry on top is the fact we are still alive with less that four months to go in the year. Our next milepoint is going to be on November 3, 2020. If you want to dissect this year, it would require a little bit of math and the ability to be open minded about a subject that honestly, a lot of people don’t agree with, especially those in the Christian faith. However, Numerology is all over the King James Bible. It was an ancient practice widespread in various cultures. Numbers in the Bible can often be taken literally, but they are sometimes used as symbols. Many scholars have used numerology to see patterns and codes in the Bible. You yourself may be able to find lots of verses with numbers in them. Numerology attempts to explain the meaning of these numbers to see what God may be telling us by using them. However, nowhere are we taught to look for systems of numbers in the scripture much less told what those numbers signify.
According to Numerology, September 2020 is a 4 Universal Month. How did I get that? Well you add in the fact that September is the 9th month of the Gregorian calendar. Therefore you have the number “9”. Then you have the year 2020, in that, you add 2+0+2+0=4. Now we add the numbers “9” and “4” resulting in the number “13” (ooooh spooky number, right?). Now we at 1+3 to get the number “4”. In short, add 9 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 0 = 13, and 1 + 3 = 4. The number “4” brings structure and discipline to the collective mood. The number “4” is all about keeping a logical, methodical attitude to whatever you do. This usually means that work and career take priority, yet for you this could just as easily apply to home or family life. Not many people are aware of the number “4” in biblical numerology. It represents God’s creative work: four corners of the earth, four kingdoms mentioned in Daniel’s prophecy, four seasons and four primary directions (east, west, north, and south). Also, in Parable of the Sower, there were four kinds of soils and there were four guardians (https://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/4.html). The number 4 is aligned with the creative energy that puts human affairs on a firm footing or solid foundation.
Although we may not feel like we are on solid foundation, it seems we may be shaken up by the way things are looking around us. We still need to find peace within ourselves and with one another before things get worse and believe me, it will get worse before it gets better. We got to hold the line, keep ourselves in check because there are those who wish to do us harm in all ways, including physical, mental, and spiritual. One verse that comes to mind that, in my opinion, would best describe what we are currently experiencing: Ephesians 6:12 – “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]”. Let this waller around your head for a moment. We see it every day. That’s the best description of what the news media is so fixed on. So many people who don’t care and choose to be a “victim” when they are the ones who initiate the situation. It’s evident in the riots (NOT Peaceful Protests) / Demonstrations in the cities. Democratic authorities (a.k.a. mayors, District Attorneys, Governors) are all sitting back and watching their cities and communities burn, literally. Well, with one exception: Kenosha, Wisconsin. If I understand it right, there has been some federal assistance requested there (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kenosha-wisconsin-fbi-agents-sent-after-deadly-shooting/) AFTER the Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers originally turned the offer down (https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/08/25/jacob-blake-shooting-white-house-says-evers-turned-down-federal-help/3439506001/).
It’s a sad time in our country right now because of one groups agenda. Let’s call it out for what it is and say the group is about over the edge, but beyond sanity. It has infected almost everything we see and touch: Politics, Entertainment, TV Shows/ Movies, Mainstream Media (all forms), I can’t even stand to listen to the radio anymore unless it’s specific formats and shows. That is extremely hurtful to me because I love radio that damn much. I’m getting music sent to me by artists and record reps who are trying to make money of this because they think it’s a marketable cash cow. I say the buck stops here.
Why can’t we just get information and make our own decisions? Why can’t we watch the TV news without opinions being shovelled down our throats? Why can’t we hear the radio DJ’s, news at the top and bottom of every hour, or shows without having our brains getting pushed into a direction that violates our personal beliefs? Why am I wrong to believe abortion should be expensive and adoptions should be cheap? Divorce should come a huge price on both parties and marriages should be free? Why is it expected that I hate one color of skin when I don’t even know the person who hates me for mine? Why am I a bad person for not standing up for an organization who won’t stand up for me? Why is it a competition to show who’s less racist? Why I’m on the subject, didn’t a Presidential Candidate on the Democratic ticket say he was only going to choose a woman of color for his VP pick and do it? It’s that a form of racism too?
No one in that agenda see’s it that way. I’m not complaining on who picked who for what, I’m just saying it was blatantly obvious that it happened and it wasn’t called out by that side who claims this country that I love is filled with “racial injustice”. In my humble opinion due to the research I’ve done on the man and the movement, Martin Luther King, jr wouldn’t approve of this at all. The violence, the hurtful accusations, the division of the country, it’s people no matter what race or creed, MLK jr would not approve. Now I didn’t know the man personally, but I would have liked to talk with him if he were still around today. It is a shame, that if he were alive today, my heart tells me he wouldn’t approve “the movement” of today. He would do what Jacob Blakes mother said in the press conference she had after he son was shot. Very beautiful speech about coming together with love, not division and hate. This has got to stop, folks. It’s got to come to an end.
The sports world is in trouble. From College to Professional, Minor to Major, anything that has activity and a heartbeat on television is going down the drain as far as ratings go. I don’t watch sports, but I have to hand it to the fans. They are tired of watching this political bowel movement that is happening with their sports. It’s supposed to be entertainment, but it’s lost that meaning over the past year or so. It’s one thing to express your beliefs off the field, but when you put the game in jeopardy, you are just making an ass of yourself and it’s just another form of show. You are making it all about yourself and not what the game or sport can be. Fans watch these things for entertainment so they can forget the real world for a few hours. They don’t care what you think, outside of your strategy to get the ball from one side of the court to the other. Because YOU chose to make that mistake, inject that poison to cause an infection in that sport, that Leagues ratings have been affected because people have tuned out. You can blame the cord cutters (https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2020/08/19/nba-ratings-orlando-bubble-games), but truth is people are tired of seeing you take a knee during the National Anthem, boycott a game over the police, and support an organization that is destroying your fans homes or businesses. If you (players and team owners) haven’t figured it out yet, you are creating your own end with the sport. Until that changes, expect your wallets to get smaller and the value of your “product” become less and less.
On a side note, I do have to thank Vincent Kennedy McMahon for keeping the WWE ( https://www.wwe.com ) open as well as Tony Khan and Cody Rhodes for keeping AEW (https://www.allelitewrestling.com) open too! The UFC opened back up early to entertain the masses. More than what I can say for the other sports leagues / industry. Granted, there might not be much, if any, of an audience in attendance, but as far as the action goes, it is fairly decent to watch. Personally, whenever I do an event, I feed off the crowd and I give it back to them. So it is a little “off” to see these matches and no real audience in attendance. At least WWE is experimenting with services like Zoom and Skype to make it more interactive, even if the producers of the show are telling the participating audiences when to clap, cheer, and boo. Sad, but true. However, these athletes are not making statements in the match, on the broadcast, or during the events to make themselves stand out as a virtue signal.
Personally, I feel if you are one of these people who are paid millions of dollars a year and you want to boycott a game or event because of something you still don’t know the full story about because it’s an ongoing investigation, then you should lose that money you were going to be paid for that event / day. If I was working at a job and wanted to pull a stunt like these sports players, I would expect my boss to fire me on the spot or at least lose a day’s’ wages. Work don’t get done if no-one shows up. These players are hurting their other team members who want to make that money to support their families. Not forget to mention the people who work for the stadiums, the vendors, the sponsors, and others involved who won’t be getting paid because they can’t work if there is no event. IMHO, these sports players are way overpaid, over-hyped, and given too much credit for what little they actually do get paid for. That’s one of the reasons I really got into the XFL because the quarterback was the highest paid member of the team with the average earnings of $250,000 yearly salary, while the lowest was $50,000 (https://www.xflnewshub.com/xfl-players/xfl-player-salary-structure/). They only got a bonus if the team won a game, in which the entire team would get the bonus.
And what seems to be turning into an attention whore tug-of-war between the rioting demonstrations and COVID-19 in the mainstream news media, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention have laid out their new statistics over the current pandemic. In their research, they have shown that out of all the people who have died “with”, but not “because of” COVID-19, a huge whopping 94% have been the result of another or pre-existing condition. In the CDC’s own words: “For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death” (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#PlaceDeath). It is plain as day using Table number three on their press release. When I read that, I had to re-read it three times to let it sink in and believe me, I got mad. I admit, it made my blood boil after reading it and it processing in my mind. We shut down the country almost to a grinding halt because of this massively devastating illness that some call a disease. No, it’s not a disease. The only “disease” related to COVID-19 is the mass over-hyping of it. This includes the mainstream media on their excellent continuing portrayal on this over-blown pandemic. I’m not saying it’s not something to take serious, I’m just saying news companies like CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and the network broadcasters, just about EVERYONE in the media harped on it and it did less killing than getting struck by lightning. A 2017 report from the National Safety Council calculated the odds of a person dying in a motor vehicle crash at 1-in-114 and dying from a lightning strike at 1-in-161,856 (https://www.nsc.org/work-safety/tools-resources/injury-facts/chart). But that’s over a lifetime, not just a single week. It doesn’t help the COVID-19 cause either when you read the new story published in The New York Times about all the people who tested positive for the china virus that actually could have been false. In their words, “The standard tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus” (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html).
But I guess there’s nothing to do about it since we technically didn’t know the outcome we know now to this point. After all, it’s 2020 and the thing I find funny is the old saying, “Hindsight is 2020” and with that being said, looking at the new research data from the CDC and what we all know so far about COVID-19, we are able to look at it in a different way from here on forward. We know know a little bit more about ourselves, the people around us, and who we can trust / not trust with all this knowledge. Personally, I think Walmart owes everyone an apology for mandating their mask policy against everyone of their clients who chose not to wear one in their store. At the same time, we the people, don’t have to shop at Walmart because we don’t want to wear a mask. If 2020 is giving us retrovision through our perspectives, it’s nice to see that what some valued so much are now thinking twice before accessing it again. Seems like all this unexpected free time has inspired many people to invest in education, perhaps to hone professional skills, prepare for a career change, or simply learn a new hobby. Google Trends reports large upticks for searches that include terms such as “masterclass,” “online classes” and “learn online.” And, even though school closings have spurred a renaissance in remote education, parents are still seeking online educational opportunities for their children: searches for “free learning websites for kids” increased by 1,350% in 2020 (https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=free%20online%20learning%20websites%20for%20kids).
Another thing that people have been doing with all their free time since some can’t go to work or school is to read books. Physical book sales did drop down this Spring compared to last year, but it has been on a steady climb over the summer, suggesting that some people are trading television screen time for physical books as well as digital books are on the rise (https://publishingperspectives.com/2020/08/us-market-statistics-npd-and-aap-statshot-chart-industry-progress-covid19/). The COVID-19 lockdown stage in the United States helped to lift the category’s ebook sales, especially in the “Romance Novels” (wink wink) department. Unit sales for romance ebooks increased 17 percentage points from January through May 2020. In all, 16.2 million romance ebooks and print books were sold during this time period. Total romance book sales in the trade. which had declined 11 percent in January 2020 over January 2019, began trending upward in March (https://publishingperspectives.com/2020/08/trade-published-romance-sees-a-coronavirus-boost-in-the-states-covid19/).
Strange times cause people to do strange things. That I know from seeing and experiencing that for myself. We live in straining times too. There are a lot of reason to be upset, but without the hope that it will all get better, it makes it more miserable than it has to be. We need to find it in ourselves to do what we can to make our own personal lives better for the time being. As we are all bombarded with information over our heads, we need to keep the line and hold steady until the elections. Personally, I can’t wait until November 3rd to come and go. I believe the best is yet to come. Until then, I ask God to have mercy on us all. And if he chooses to, we ALL should consider that a blessing and not take it for granted.
