January 1st last year I wrote myself a letter anticipating 2021.

It struck a hopeful tone on the year, which was largely born out.

Vaccination has gone quickly in first world countries; distribution has gone well in wealthy nations. However, distribution is still terrible in the rest of the world. I find myself disappointed at the amount, though small, of anti-vaccine sentiment in Canada.
Sure enough, we were vaccinated fully by July, which was gently surprising. Sadly my daughter is still too young to be vaccinated, which is frustrating. Here's hoping she will be be vaccinated early this year.
We were able to visit friends in person, share food and drink, and visited a small number of restaurants. We did some domestic travel, and some light vacationing. It was nice.
There were multiple dangerous variants: Delta and Omicron in particular. Yet, despite that none has really achieved total vaccination escape. I am so thankful for that.

The piece of my letter that stands out the worst:

Let there be no surprise of equal magnitude to SARS-CoV-2 in 2021.

Five days after I posted my letter was the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.

That was definitely a huge surprise. Swimming pools of ink have been spilled on what it means, and what it portends. I will only say... it doesn't fill me with hope. None of this year's American politics has.

Now to write something about 2022.