Remember me?! I know it has been a while since I’ve thrown my two cents into the conversation but, during a year when we have been celebrating the history of Fountain Hills, it seemed like a good idea to step aside and let our leading expert have full run of the road.

I’ve lived in this town and have worked at this paper for a good spell, but I’ve learned more about Fountain Hills in this past year than the 14 years preceding it combined. Thanks for that goes to Alan’s weekly columns, Bob’s monthly reporting, as well as Linda’s refreshers on the history of Sister Cities. We’ve still got one more installment on Zamosc, Poland, so look forward to that in the very near future.

As for the day-to-day operations of the paper, it has certainly been a roller coaster ride through 2020. Many members of our staff are still working from home, but we’ve still managed to pull a paper together on a weekly basis. None of that could be done without their hard work and willingness to roll with the punches this past year kept throwing our way. It hasn’t been easy, but we’re proud of the fact that we’ve managed to keep bringing our readers the news both in print and online every step of the way.

But this wouldn’t be an end-of-the-year column without me stepping up on a soap box for a minute, so I hope you’ll forgive me (and maybe even take a little of this to heart).

I’m not going to sit here and recap all of the ups and downs of 2020. The year was tough on everybody and we’ve all managed it in our own ways. Some of us tried to keep life as normal as possible while others got really, really good at jigsaw puzzles. Some took up gardening while others watched every episode of every show on Netflix. Some finally tackled that big project they’ve been putting off while others discovered it is possible to take a nap in literally every room of the house.

The point is that this year hit us all in different ways and we handled it in different ways but, no matter how we got here, we’re all heading into 2021 together.

Rather than try to muddle through some original words of wisdom for the road ahead, I will instead steal shamelessly from one of my heroes, Rod Serling. Best known for creating “The Twilight Zone,” Serling had an outlook on life that I would describe as “conditionally positive.” He genuinely believed mankind was capable of anything, but only on the condition we are willing to put our differences aside and work together.

Serling was full of fantastic insight, which leads us to my favorite of his quotes: “If you write, fix pipes, grade papers, lay bricks or drive a taxi – do it with a sense of pride. And do it the best you know how. Be cognizant and sympathetic to the guy alongside, because he wants a place in the sun, too. And always...always look past his color, his creed, his religion and the shape of his ears. Look for the whole person. Judge him as the whole person.”

Serling knew that the things that make us different are the very things that unite us. There is no such thing as “normal” or “standard” when it comes to humankind. We came from different places and may be heading in different directions, but we all have dreams and something to offer. We should always strive to recognize the beauty of that chaos, accept our differences, do our best and help others to do their best as well.