Surprise to me has always been an extraneous concept. I’m hardly ever surprised, I always seem to see things coming a mile away and some people have even suspected me of being psychic.
The only time I can remember being surprised was two months after my birthday last year. My friends got me a cute pair of sneakers and a purse as gifts for my birthday. They wanted me to be really surprised so they gave it to me two months after my birthday when they knew I wouldn’t suspect a thing because all the birthday buzz would have long died down and everyone would have moved on with their lives. I must confess it was an epic feeling, the feeling of being surprised but then again not all surprises are pleasant and the year 2020 drove home that point.
2020 presented to us a box, tied with a big red bow every month. We opened it and it was always a jack in the box and somehow we always never expected that pop! The months that have stood out so far have been March and October.
In March, the jack in the box took the form of a joker, only the joker declared he wasn’t the joker anymore, he was now the coronavirus. Like how he changed his appearance after being dropped into a vat of chemicals and he became the joker, the world also changed appearance when we were dunked into the coronavirus but we don’t care about that anymore. Like the joker, we adjusted to the new look, called it the new normal.
In October, the jack in the box resembled pennywise, that creepy clown from the movie ‘it’, showing us the callousness, lack of empathy and sympathy and despicable bloodthirst of those in power and those meant to protect, bringing to stark realisation how messed up our world is, like some sort of horror movie. October is now over and 2020 might decide it’s time to give another surprise, but please 2020, we are tired of jacks in boxes. Let’s have something pleasant for a change alright.
Here’s to hoping that by God’s grace the remaining days in the year 2020 will be filled with pleasant surprises.
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