2020: The Year We Learned About Ourselves

On New Year’s Eve, 2019, we were excited about starting a new decade and the amazing innovations that we expected would happen. We also knew it was an election year and we would be bombarded with political ads on TV and e-mails begging for financial support of candidates from Georgia to Alaska.

When the pandemic struck in March of 2020, we were ordered to stay in our homes, wear masks when entering a building or attending any social event. From this experience we learned we are all in the same storm, but surviving in different boats, some better equipped to tolerate the storm than others. With that said, what have we learned about ourselves?

The year forced us to be more flexible. We developed work at home rituals, our children went to school on Zoom, and we unfolded plans that separated work, family, and personal time. For example, my oldest daughter, a family therapist, spoke to her clients from the safety of her office while her husband took care of the kids. When he was called to work, she took care of the family. At the end of the year, I noticed how much closer her family behaved toward each other. 

Schools created unique graduations for their students in 2020. Students didn’t have a typical graduation, but school administrators used their ingenuity to develop strict protocol. My nephew graduated from Kern Valley High School complete with cap, gown, and diploma. Each senior was given an appointment time and then driven onto the school track and field area, stop at the stage, and with mask on, receive their diploma from the school principal. They got back into their car, exited the track for the next graduating senior. 

With theaters closed, viewers turned to streaming creating a new normal. What movie theaters will look like after the pandemic is anyone’s guess, but it is refreshing that producers permitted their “blockbusters” to be streamed rather than wait until after the pandemic. “Mulan” is a case in point. It was slated to be released on the big screen on March 27. This live action remake of the animated “Mulan” movie skipped the theaters and was streamed on Disney Plus. Disney finally released the big budget film in September. Will this become the new normal?

Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Black Lives Matter, a decentralized political and social movement protesting the actions of police against African-American men, is a good example. As a nation, we closed our mouths and listened to the experiences of our Black brothers and sisters, and hopefully, their experiences touched our hearts and minds bringing about due change. 

2020 was a year filled with record breaking natural disasters. Named storms surpassed the record with thirty tropical storms and hurricanes moving to Greek letters after Zeta hit the Louisiana coast, the fifth storm in a single season. Wild fires scorched over four million acres of land in California doubling the previous damage done in 2018. Phoenix set a record of 144 days where temperatures reached or exceeded 100 degrees. When Australia suffered from catastrophic fires covering 50,000 square kilometers, the US National Park Service sent 100 expert firefighters from California to help out. New Zealand deployed three NH90 helicopters and crew to airlift people to safety. When blazes spread across California during the summer of 2020, Israel sent a team of emergency personnel to help the victims. From all of this we learned we are not in this alone. We are connected to each other and depend on each other for survival—a message that must be internalized after the pandemic.

To deal with the loneliness and isolation of the pandemic, many of us took up journal writing, meditation, or yoga. I finished writing a book that took me four years to compose and spent more time on my blog. My daughters and I used to meet several times a month at a restaurant to catch up and kibbitz. The pandemic took that away from us, but we created a new routine. We met at Lake Balboa Park for a picnic which turned out more fun than sitting in a restaurant. And my youngest daughter, a lawyer, had more face time with her toddler son. She got to work at home and loves the fact that she is raising her little boy and not some day care worker.

In her article, “What did we learn about ourselves in 2020?” Denise Ciardello says, “I try to live by the motto—no regrets.” We have two choices in life, she suggests, “to live with negativity, or to look through the lens of optimism.” Cindy Rehwald, the founder of WeUsOurs.com agrees. She dubs her organization a community that “brings awareness to relationships promoting kindness and positive connections.” She was thrilled to see so many nations helping out the Australians when they were in great need last January and excited to see the Israeli people risking their lives to help Americans. Rehwald says, “We are all in this together and its imperative take care of each other as much as possible.” (You can learn more about We,Us,Ours from this September 29,2020 blog post.)

2020 bore fruit of an amazing achievement of our scientists, who worked together on a world-wide goal of finding a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus. As we’ve seen, 2020 was the year for innovative ideas. When our children and grandchildren remember that year, they won’t recall missing their prom or going to a movie, but will remember the optimism, encouragement, and strength of their leaders and mentors. And after we all get our second vaccination and the coronavirus pandemic restrictions are lifted, our children will walk out of their homes into a new world, and hopefully, they enter this new world with optimism and love for their fellow human beings.