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Today is Dec. 9, and after today it is 22 days until the end of 2020, which none of us will be sad to see go.

Since March, it’s seemed like one slog after another as we trudge our way to the end of the year. An election with historic contention that refuses to end doesn’t help in the least.

We are tired and we are impatient during a year that makes all of us feel like we are Sisyphus, the king in Greek mythology who is punished for his deceitfulness by having to push a boulder up a hill only to see it roll back to the bottom, forcing him to relive the trial.

This could be editorial that works in the common tropes of how resilient we are and how we face the challenges of 2020; however, to do that we are forced to admit to the other side. This year has opened raw wounds in our culture, some of which will persist and fester. It adds to the exhaustion we all bear as we head toward Christmas and the year beyond.

Yes, this will all pass at some point. The COVID-19 pandemic will ultimately drift away as successful vaccines are pushed through at an astonishing rate. Should they work and should they get us over Sisyphus’ hill, then it will be a monument to what science can accomplish.

The election we have all suffered through will also end. President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated in January, but a quick fix to anything is out of the question. The divides in our government and among our people persist, promising more fighting to come.

It’s in us to believe there is a better tomorrow and there are routes to this. This country has dealt with difficult times before, no doubt. It was born in difficult times and it handled difficult times — the Civil War, Pearl Harbor, 9/11, racial injustice — to name just a few. We carry the scars from these moments in history and we use these scars to ask how we can be better.

It’s easy to ask “how?” In the face of politicians who forgot who they work for and who bicker rather than barter, it’s easy to see how we have become cynical about our nation’s route.

Likewise, it’s easy for people to point fingers and arrows of accusation at President Donald Trump, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Deep State, the media, but where has this gotten any of us?

A chance to spew venom on Facebook or Twitter? What good is this?

We have 22 days left in this year and we ask you to take those days to think about  what you as an individual can do to be better. None of us are perfect and we never will be. This country will never be perfect, but that doesn’t mean we, as individuals, can not do something to at least make our specific world a better place and together maybe we can put all of these things together to get past the turbulent ocean we are currently adrift in.

Your personal changes alone won’t change the world, but perhaps starting with ourselves we can take those first steps to coming back together.

There are 22 days left in 2020. What will your 2021 look like?