Oh, 2020
I realized today it had been quite a while since I'd blogged, when I'd intended to get back to it more regularly. And yet...when I look back on my 2019 wrap-up post with all my hopes for "an even better 2020," there's only hollow laughter now.
We are facing global crises in literally every sphere--the pandemic, political/social justice, to say nothing of the ongoing global climate crisis. It's honestly too much some days. I went from having big, elaborate plans and hopes to...living my daily existence as best I can and not thinking very far ahead. Like a lot of people I've wanted to just throw my planner out the window or burn it in the chiminea.
However, I find myself still hoping that the pandemic in particular will teach us about resilience, about the need for a national healthcare system in America, about what we value and how we're going to vote to show those values in November. I keep hoping it'll teach us about what we really *need* and how maybe we could change things for the better if we dared. About the fact that one person wearing a mask can save lives and break the chain of infection. One person can change things for a lot of people.
It would be easy to despair now. A lot of days when I'm literally flat on my face because once again my back is killing me, I think about how easy it would be to give in to that despair. About a month ago, my back was hurt again to the point I could barely walk. And in the agony, I really just wanted to give up. But the pain clarified for me the fact that I had been here before and I had overcome it. I could do it again. Slowly, I did.
Whether we recognize it or not, we have been here before as a nation, as a world. We've worked hard to overcome so many diseases--polio, measles, Spanish flu--and we're still working on many others. I believe we can do this if we continue to try. I hope the pain, deep as it is, is clarifying and reminds us of our strength, who we could be if we continue to try.
"The old world is dying. The new world world is being born. Now is the time of monsters." (A loose translation of a quote from Antonio Gramsci). There is much truth to this. Let us take strength in our monstrousness, in our despair, and make this world new.