New Year’s Resolution: Look Out For One Another
For longer than the four-plus years I’ve worked here, we’ve called this section Living Well.
We’ve shortened the name to Living to align with our categories online but will keep the content much the same.
The former moniker suggests both healthy living and living the good life of great food, fun, travel, and other opportunities.
Both of those themes proved challenging in 2020, with a pandemic making many ill and restricting most of the usual opportunities to get out in Dallas and beyond.
As New Year’s Eve fireworks light up the Dallas sky beginning at 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31 for the Reunion Tower Over The Top NYE 360-degree, panoramic fireworks spectacular, so too will come hopes for a 2021 more free of such concerns and prohibitions.
Of course, COVID-19 doesn’t vanish with the display of more than 4,000 pyrotechnic special effects and 259 LED lights.
Getting the virus under control will require vaccines and other medical advances. News on that front appears increasingly promising, but it’s too soon to know just when life will return to what we think of as “normal.”
In the meantime, we need to keep looking out for one another.
I’m not talking only about wearing masks and taking other precautions to reduce the spread. Stay in touch with others – though remotely – and be watchful for those who may be struggling.
“The length of this crisis has depleted many of our emotional resources, and the need for physical distancing has changed our ability to use social connections to cope adaptively,” Dr. Kim Roaten, an UT Southwestern Medical Center associate professor, warned in the fall.
Roaten also is with the psychiatry department for the Parkland Health & Hospital System.
“Many of us are struggling with changes to our jobs, under-employment or unemployment, and a transition to virtual schooling,” she said.
No doubt the holidays have exacerbated such stresses for many.
“If you are worried about someone, speak up,” Roaten advised. “Let them know you’re concerned. Reassure them that seeking help is a sign of strength. Let them know they’re not alone, that you’re there for them.”
That’s a good New Year’s resolution for us all.
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