Honey, Happy Anniversary, And Thanks For Sticking Around

I am often surprised by people worldwide who tell me that they regularly read my wandering thoughts. Many even say they find them helpful in their lives.

Honey, Happy Anniversary, And Thanks For Sticking Around
Photo by Ray Hennessy / Unsplash

Honey, Happy anniversary! Last month marked the first anniversary of this blog. I have meandered through various cooking, trade policy, travel, leadership, economics, history, beaches, and encouragement to folks I know who follow my blog. To those who encouraged me to write this blog, I say you are extraordinary friends and family, and thanks for believing I have ideas worth sharing. The rest of the world would like to hear from you all, so don’t hesitate to send in your comments: Honey, happy anniversary, and thanks for sticking around.

To those who have followed me over the last twelve months, thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking around. I am often surprised by people worldwide who tell me that they regularly read my wandering thoughts. Many even say they find them helpful in their lives. That’s really heartfelt. I try to help others improve and learn from my research, discussions, and writings. We share so much in common in this world but often don’t realize it due to a lack of exposure to each other. I was pleasantly surprised when a fellow webinar panelist encouraged a group of conference participants to follow my blog. I hope to keep people’s interest and grow in readership.

What’s Next For This Summer

Summer is upon us. It’s already 90+ degrees Fahrenheit (30s Celsius), and our air conditioning is saving us who work from home from dying of heat exhaustion. We must worry about hurricanes again, like Elsa, which passed us a few weeks ago. I wrote a blog about preparing for a hurricane which is still valid today. As more people vaccinate for COVID-19, we are venturing out more. I have already attended family parties, house dinners, and backyard parties. My weekends are becoming active again. I even have business lunches. I recently attended my first-in-over-12-months business luncheon with about 100 people in one room. No one wore a mask. We are still experimenting. We know that the delta variant of the virus is snaking along regions of predominantly unvaccinated people.

a student is being injected with a vaccine
Photo by Ed Us / Unsplash

Meanwhile, I continue encouraging, teaching, learning, and promoting business ideas and people I meet or have done exciting things. I encourage folks to read this story about one of my colleagues who published a coloring book celebrating American culture. They have another two volumes of Black is the Color of, on the way. In addition, I did a video on YouTube where we talked about the contents and motivation of the book. I like focusing on stories about how people have owned their journey in life, whether business, family, or conquering some long-held ambition to improve oneself.

Where Are We Travelling To

Travelling has picked up tremendously since 2020. Except for business travelers, pent-up demand leads to full planes traveling to favorite vacation spots with appropriate protocols for vaccinated passengers and tests. I am still deciding where to travel to, and I will undoubtedly let followers of this blog know where I have traveled to and my impressions. I have Portugal, the Caribbean, and Mexico in mind. Sorry for all the other invitations I have for Montreal, Liberia, Ghana, and France. I probably do not remember how to catch a plane and move through an airport. We lose our traveling skills if not used regularly.

The challenge is that countries are still in lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus. Some people have refused to get vaccinated due to personal reasons. Sometimes, it’s health-related, while others distrust their governments due to past nefarious behaviors. Many global south countries do not have vaccines, even though many people would love to get vaccinated. With more than sufficient vaccines, it may find itself in pockets forced into lockdown again. However, countries that can stay open by keeping their contagion rate low to zero will win the “clean” tourists.

Photo by Joseph Menjivar / Unsplash

Status Of The Global Pandemic

As I alluded to, developing countries need vaccines and don’t have enough, and rich countries have an abundance of vaccines while some of their population don’t want them. The delta variant is easier to spread because it’s more contagious than its predecessors. I won’t go into why viruses mutate but think of how we adapt to our environment if the host is mild. Here is a better explanation of why the mutation is taking place. The virus can only replicate in a host, humans. As of July 23, 2021, the death toll was 4.1 million worldwide. The WHO web page shows that many countries do not fully handle the virus; some have shown recent infection rates.

In another blog, I encouraged people to get vaccinated so that we can travel freely again. In some cases, there has been a spate of flights on planes due to mask-wearing-hesitancy. Sometimes passengers get angry at people who don’t want to wear masks. Typically, the people who don’t want to wear masks either don’t believe there is a vaccine or get vaccinated. Furthermore, I think everyone else is fooled into following the crowd and an untrustworthy set of governments. I promise not to fight anyone on a plane for not wearing a mask. My mask-wearing will protect both of us.

Conclusion

We have to ride this COVID storm together. Many people worry about conspiracies, and not everyone will get vaccinated. But we need a critical mass to eradicate the virus and return to our everyday crazy lives. That means that more people have to be convinced. It’s hard because the grand experiment may change how, when, and who gets vaccinated. We don’t know. Those vaccinated now are not getting fatally ill, except for the few who have a nasty reaction to the vaccine.

As my doctor said, she has seen what COVID-19 does to patients. If there is a 5 percent chance she could end up in a hospital bed gasping for oxygen due to the asphyxiation of the virus, she will take her chances with the vaccine. I like my doctor and think she is brilliant. I trust her. This is my decision. People must talk to their healthcare providers to better understand their options.

Please continue to read my blog and send comments on topics you would be interested in me exploring more—meanwhile, Honey, Happy Anniversary, And Thanks For Sticking Around.