How shall we remember the year 2020?
As this remarkable year winds down the one thought on most people’s minds is that we can’t wait to forget 2020 and welcome the New Year 2021!!
Like in every December, I can’t help ponder how yet another year has gone by and more so this year because it was a milestone year for me. I started the second innings of my life in 2020! But unlike all other years, 2020 begs to ask the question what do I really make of this year? How can I really define 2020? How will it be remembered?
Obviously the only thought coming to my mind is “2020 the year of the Covid-19 global pandemic”, a pandemic that started with stories trickling out of China followed by the extraordinary scenes from Italy and after 10+ months still surging ruthlessly and relentlessly here in the United States and in several other parts of the world. Personally, it has evoked emotions of fear & shock followed by sadness & empathy, then disbelief & anger and now frustration, impatience & exasperation. With more sadness.
The mostly unjustified loss of human lives this year has been the most painful to digest. Those who have lost their dear ones to the pandemic will always remember 2020 with an ache in their hearts like none other but the world will eventually move on. Years later future generations will learn about 2020 through documentaries about the dreadful hospital scenes that we’ve been watching all year on our television sets, the tragic stories of patients meeting their deaths on lonely hospital beds as narrated by nurses breaking down in tears. And all this in the backdrop of an unprecedented lock down, ghost towns around the world followed by protests against racial justice & police brutality, protests against the lock down itself, loss of jobs and long lines at the food banks. Stories of over stretched healthcare workers and scientists decoding the covid-19 virus, frustrating online schools and the ridiculous toilet paper mania. And not to mention the Great American Political Drama — the 2020 US Presidential elections with one candidate’s baffling medical science defying election rallies!!
The year 2020 has been a year of paradoxes and ironies… a year that will always stand out in bold underlined letters in the History of the 21st century and yet a year that most people who lived through it would hate to talk about, rather wish they can forget it completely. This year has been a defining moment for some world leaders who helped their countries sail these turbid waters with minimum casualties while sadly countries like the United States are still rocking on stormy seas like a rudderless and captain-less ship.
While air pollution made the pandemic effects worse, the same pandemic made the skies cleaner with its lock down. In many big cities around the world pollution levels went down to levels not experienced in decades. Yet cities on the US west coast including my own, experienced unprecedented levels of toxic air quality caused by the raging wild fires.
We’ve seen the stock market soaring to record levels yet local small businesses including some in my own neighborhood shuttering down. The rare opportunity for family time, huddling together watching Netflix, board games, fun culinary experiments and home improvement projects have all culminated into cabin fever and a yearning for social interactions. Satiated with boredom humans remain caged and wild life continues to flourish reclaiming its territories with new found freedom!
However, as we navigate through the emotional & financial wreckage that 2020 is leaving in its wake, this dark chapter in history also has many silver linings. There is plenty more for the history books to write and much more for future generations to learn!
2020 has seen increased philanthropy all over the world. From millionaires making hefty donations, artists coming together for beneficiary concerts, celebrity chefs providing free meals, a stranger leaving $2,000 tip to a restaurant server and ordinary people chipping donations to food banks. I personally came to know a group of 50 odd Indian American women in Portland area as we started sewing hundreds of masks for local hospitals. One devised a way to provide meals to the worn out hospital staff that would also help locally owned restaurants to stay afloat. Collecting and distributing household items to communities devastated by wild fires in central Oregon. Most of them have been new acquaintances that I have yet to meet in person! It has been a very fulfilling and humbling experience. Neighbors reaching out to neighbors, ensuring the elderly residents are staying safe; even work emails from people I’ve never met and living on different continents inquiring about my families’ health and well being. 2020 leaves me with a feeling of warmth and hope that not all is lost!
The way people came out in droves and protested against racial injustice — black, white, yellow, brown… regardless of their race or religion was just so incredible to experience. This is a year that has not only shown the world the stark & ugly differences in America but made each of us question our own sub conscious racial biases. A year that finally acknowledged women and empowered one to the second highest office in the United States! This is definitely a year to be proud of!
What about the doctors and nurses and lab technicians and other hospital staff from management to janitors… no words!! Endangering their lives and their families’ and many making the ultimate sacrifice… falling down as front-line soldiers on this new war front. They and their families still continue to make sacrifices while me and my family continue to live in the safety and comfort of our home. Thousands of Firefighters from the American west coast to Australia risked their lives in 2020 to overcome nature’s inferno and saved lives and wildlife and properties from devastating fires. All those people involved in the race against time to invent vaccines for this pandemic virus are still working round the clock. Neighborhoods cheering healthcare workers returning home every night. US Postal Service workers receiving impromptu ovations for collecting and delivering tens of millions of mail in ballots in time! Election officials risking health hazards to keep democracy alive. Teachers working hard to keep my children’s education going. How can I ever want to forget 2020 the year in which ordinary people turned into extra ordinary heroes!
This pandemic year 2020 has taught us so many lessons. For starters 2020 has made people work on general heath & wellness not merely as a customary New Year’s Resolution but in the real sense of staying fit & healthy. This year has given a new meaning to family & friendships. Birthdays & Anniversaries have been reminders that we are fortunate to be celebrating them even if under quarantine. Technology and internet has brought us closer together through video calls with friends we haven’t met in decades! Grandparents are learning to use Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts and myriad of apps! I met some childhood friends virtually (pun intended) after almost 35 years!! How can I forget 2020 a year that kept me in touch with friends and family more than any other year?
Thanksgiving in 2020 was without extended families and for some with incomplete families but it had a much deeper meaning this year. I lost two dear friends at the end of 2019 and started 2020 with a funeral. I am moved with admiration when I see the calmness and sheer will power that both of their spouses have mustered in order to plow through this year in quarantine, displaying complete normalcy for the sake of their children. I will always look up to 2020 as the year of courage under the most challenging circumstances in life.
I now see this machinery called our society in a completely new light, realizing how many parts and nuts & bolts it takes to make this modern machinery churn!! The often overlooked chain of grocery store workers to the transport & delivery truck drivers, barbers & hair dressers and government officials. Massive behind the scene armies of online shopping websites and TV networks. I have new found respect for all of them. How can I forget a year that has been an eye opener in so many ways?
In 2020 I also realized how much I enjoy trivial things in life. How I wish for that elusive normal life as I prepare myself for the new normal… I miss the sights and smells of markets and streets bustling with people. And yes I actually miss driving my son to school and other activities, even if it means sitting in traffic. I miss the sounds of laughter and chatter of kids as I pick him at school. I miss the smiles on faces of complete strangers I pass by at a grocery store that are now completely hidden behind their masks. And oh the sinfully enticing smell of fresh buttery popcorn as I enter the cinema halls!! I need to always appreciate these little things in life for the joy they give me. And I am thankful to 2020 for making me realize their values.
I also need to applaud so many socially conscious couples like my nephew who let go of their wedding plans for the unconventional “Zoom Weddings”. According to Chinese astrology, babies born in 2020, the Year of the Metal Rat, are strong and have the ability to turn unlucky events into positive outcomes. Although I’m not a believer in astrology, one thing is certain — these little angles of 2020 have indeed fought all odds to arrive and turned a dreary year into sheer joy for their families! The babies born in 2020 need to be celebrated too!
The year 2020 has hijacked an entire year of my “normal” life but it has also given a whole new meaning to life itself. It has helped me differentiate between mundane things in life and what matters the most to me. How much can I filter out the mundane and reach beneath the surface is debatable but I will be satisfied with at least a few scratches on the surface for now. I do hope this 2020 experience will help shape my character for the better in the years to come. And if this personal hope can turn into reality and perhaps even translate on a wider scale for all of us, then yes we can all look forward to the year 2021 and beyond with far more hope & optimism. There will definitely be something positive about 2020 for our future generations to gain strength from and for history books to applaud. And so I bid adieu to 2020 with gratitude in my heart… 🙏🏼
