During the spring and summer of 2020, when my household was making and distributing hand-sewn face masks, I got a gift package from a faraway friend who was doing the same. She sent us pins that said “Mask Maker 2020” and a custom Tarot deck she had stamped herself.

Every single card in this deck was the Lightning-Struck Tower. How convenient!

I had stuff to say about 2020, but it’s too soon. It’s a blur of mounting death tolls, racist police violence, shortages of rubbing alcohol and toilet paper and prepackaged yeast, burning out three sewing machines as I did my part day and night to compensate for the lack of commercially available PPE, shutting my windows against the tear gas while glumly conferring with colleagues via Zoom on our public statement regarding J.K. Rowling’s transphobia, shuttered storefronts, online classes, depressed schoolchildren…

Well, the all-Tower Tarot deck made me laugh.