No Compliments Here

With the holiday season well underway and the strangest year in living memory almost behind us (we got this!), I wanted to take a moment to offer my salutations to the CASL family (students, staff, faculty, alumni, and supporters) and to wish you all the best new year ever. I hope that you are feeling well and that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. The college is, fortunately, finishing the fall term strongly, with few cases of COVID impacting our community. Certainly, the continued separation and isolation that we are experiencing are taking their toll on many of us, but in the main, our community has been fortunate in avoiding the worst effects of this pandemic and many are eyeing with great eagerness the vaccines that are now within our reach. Having said that, however, now is not the time to let down our guard. As we are all too aware, this pandemic has had a devastating impact on us as a nation and as a global community. Sadly, many of us know family members and friends who have been afflicted with COVID and far too many of us know someone who has succumbed to this terrible disease. So please, please, please continue your efforts to keep yourself and others safe. As Judy Garland reminds us in her beautiful 1944 rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Someday soon we all will be together, if the Fates allow.” “Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.” In the Eighteenth Century it was common for people to speak (in a sadly ironic way) of receiving “Christmas Compliments” from their friends and family members during the final weeks of the calendar year in recognition of the fact that the prevalence of diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis, and colds rose dramatically during the holiday season as families and acquaintances gathered together to celebrate the season. It is my fervent hope that all of my readers and the broader CASL community are spared “Christmas Compliments” during this COVID Christmas. Please accept in their stead my wishes for the Happiest of Holidays and a Healthy 2021!