The year we’d all rather forget is winding down. There’s only a few hours left and then we will finally be able to close the books on a year that is a good candidate for being one of the worst years of modern human history.
So many crises erupted over the last three hundred and sixty five days it’s hard to remember it all, let alone believe it. But happen they did. And though the year is ending, the trials are not. There are more to come. The planet is still on lockdown, after all.
We will emerge from this, of course. The trauma of 2020 will become a memory and will be replaced by the jubilation of 2021, when we see each other again. When I see you again, it is not the memory of the coldness of your absence that will come to mind, it will be the warmth of your presence that will, once again, take roost in my heart. This will not come as soon as we would like, but much sooner than either of us fears. We will be together again.
In the meantime…
There are many lessons I want to get out of this tragic year but there is one above else that I hope and pray remains permanently ingrained. I am alive because of the competence and benevolence of thousands of people, most of whom I will never meet or have the opportunity to thank. I did not get to this point in my life merely on my own merits and abilities. Many people had to work hard for me live a life of relative comfort and peace. And many of those people are, themselves, deprived of such comfort and peace.
This has always been true, but only lately have I begun to truly understand the reality of this.
I am part of a vast network of kindness, generosity and compassion that has benefitted me greatly. I am by no means the most important part of that network, but I have an important part to play. And that is to contribute to the members of that network and to expand the reach of that network.
The bounties of this life are not evenly distributed. If that wasn’t obvious before, it should be clear now. That is no way for a tribe to survive. Though eight billion and counting we may be, we are nonetheless one tribe. The old boundaries that we once thought marked us as separate and safe have been demolished by something more minuscule than the width of a hair. The fate of the most powerful amongst is tightly bound with the fate of the weakest.
So when I emerge from this lockdown, I hope I remember this above all. When I see you for the first time—in three dimensions and not just in two—I hope I treat you with the compassion and generosity you deserve, for the simple fact that you are a human being and you have a beating heart. I hope I remember that, just like me, you have gifts, you’ve had struggles, you’ve won and you’ve lost. I hope you remember the same about me.
But barring all of that, when we see each other again, free from our prisons, I hope we can sit down, have a drink, laugh and revel in the simple joy of being alive and being with another human being.
Here’s to hoping that this year becomes the worst of our past and the harbinger for the best of our future.
Happy New Year, Humanity!