2020 has been a terrible year for so many people. The deaths from Covid 19, the loss of togetherness and the economic disaster we have all faced this year. If you have only faced two of those things consider yourself lucky. I want to write about what all this trauma we have received this year means for us after it is gone. I want to talk about the future after we have survived. After we have made it through all COVID19 and life returns to “normal”. If we talk about how we are going to make it through the long night that is 2020 where we are worried, waiting and feeling like you aren’t doing enough or can’t do enough. Seeing your local favorite business usually a bar or restaurant suffer or close for good. We are going to see a lot of holes in our world when we can return to “normal”. People have carried themselves through these troubled times. Everyone’s story is different like a snowflake but also the same. That is what we all have in common. I could fill this page with all the terrible things that have happened or some have become aware of problems in our society that have always been there but this suffering has brought them to the surface like a salve that draws out the infection. We have seen racial injustice and poverty that was barely buried below the surface and now has risen for us all to see. The long lines of food pantries for the people that barely made it before 2020 and others who never faced it before. I don’t want to fill these pages with all our problems we have.
I want to talk about what we need to do after the immediate threat has passed when it gets back to “normal”. I want us to talk about it after we get back on our feet. I want those lucky enough to stand back up after this happens to live life differently not because 2020 has damaged us but because we have learned from the tough times. I want us to appreciate the simple things that we didn’t even think about before. I am talking about going out with your friends and family to eat and drink. I know i have missed live performances and music on your tv screen is just not the same. I miss hugging old friends and new friends and just having a conversation in person where you can read each other’s reactions and feel the pace of a conversation without a zoom delay. I hope people find joy in even failing when you meet a woman and she doesn’t feel the same. It is all about trying because you only have to hit it off with the right person once so maybe just basking in trying and saying the wrong thing. Maybe that is trying to connect with someone and not getting what you want but trying. We miss so much while not being with each other. So I want us to go after these moments in life after we are back to normal. I want us to enjoy the simple joys of life because these are the true joys of life. It used to be about who had a nice phone no one else had but it’s not going to be about things like that anymore. People will still buy new things but we do not look for enjoyment out of them for those our only tools we use. Times with our loved ones are the important thing we should show off to each other as precious treasures. A photo of a good time will be our new objects of bragging. We will visit more often those that we miss and we will take our PTO and use it like never before. We will think about others who we don’t know or maybe we will know and give to good causes and food banks because we remember the troubled times of 2020. We will give because we have known these trouble times. We will find the joy in gathering around food and beverage and know that it is in these things that are important. We will forget about our differences and see our similarities because we all get hungry and thirsty and need shelter. We will see each other as something different but the same. We will know each other’s sadness in our own sadness and we will be in it all together. We will be more generous to each other. I bet some readers doubt this happening but I have hope because we have all suffered separately but will heal together. So enjoy the moments you didn’t think much about before 2020 but now you know these are the only moments that matter.
Amelio's Palace of Stories 