2020 …
It has been quite the unusual year.
I feel like I should recap a little bit for anyone looking back from the future and thinking, ah now, it wasn’t that bad was it?
The big news was, of course, the global pandemic. Yes, pandemic. Let that sink in for a moment.
There were varying degrees of success with getting it under control in the early months of the world-wide spread. New Zealand shut down early, closing borders and getting people to stay apart; they were down to zero new cases at one point. Sometimes it’s good to be an island.
Unfortunately most other countries weren’t as successful. March, April, and May saw heartbreaking stories coming from Italy, as their hospitals, and subsequently morgues and crematoriums, were overwhelmed. Some people kept blogs and journals during this first wave of the pandemic. One I followed had a number of heartbreaking images included at various times, including overwhelmed health care workers and a convoy of military trucks being used to move the deceased to areas of the country that could cremate them within a reasonable time. (Direct link to one of the posts: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/270443/item/7601994#item7601994).
The US, always wanting to be #1, did a great job of being #1 – in transmissions and deaths. It’s been tough to watch and just hope that people do what’s best to protect themselves and their communities, and to see people fall short of that hope.
These are not normal times. And yet, people seem determined, sometimes in spite of their own best interests, to maintain something akin to the non-pandemic life they had.
After massive efforts in the spring of closing businesses, sending people home, and limiting interactions between people, the global numbers started to come down with the number of new infections being reported no longer exceeding the previous day, but running at around the same number or even less. (So if Monday had 1000 new infections, Tuesday had 1000 or even 990 new infections.)
Then summer came, and people relaxed. Businesses wanted, and needed, their customers back. Some workers who weren’t used to working from home were eager to get back into the office, and some businesses weren’t ready to have long term work-from-home employees. And I think people were feeling isolated. Time dragged on and the virus hadn’t been eradicated – people continued to get infected, people continued to die, or survive with complications – and people were getting restless. Sure, they could deal with being home with no outside socializing for weeks, and a few months, but then as the situation didn’t improve (the virus was still around), people struggled to stick to the guidelines. So they started getting together in small groups, going out to eat, going to the reopened bars, and so on, and getting lax with keeping distance and wearing masks.
This was in conjunction with another development where people in various countries were going down some conspiracy theory rabbit holes. Generally this led them to ideas to reject science and that some (not all) government officials are part of some large cover-ups. This resulted in some people believing COVID-19 didn’t exist, and they acted accordingly.
It’s been a strange time to live in.
The end of 2020 has the world still in the grips of daily infections on the rise once again. However vaccines are rolling out from multiple companies into numerous countries. There’s optimism that a majority of people in most western countries could be vaccinated by fall 2021 and gatherings could begin to be safe again, someday.
2020 wasn’t just about the pandemic though. 2020 also included huge, devastating summer wildfires in Australia in the early part of the year followed by the same in California and other western states in the middle of the year.
The end of 2019 saw the US President being impeached for using his influence to persuade a foreign government to interfere with the upcoming 2020 election and then for interfering with the investigation. January 2020 saw the US Senate decide not to call witnesses or take documents, and decided not to remove the President from office. (The President and the majority in the Senate are of the same political party.)
The depth of racism in US police forces was brought to the public eye giving rise to protests around the US calling for changes. Other countries took the time for some introspection, although I expect most of the conclusions were, “well at least we’re not as bad as them”. Here in the Netherlands, the tradition of Sinterklaas being accompanied by Black Piet has been a topic of conversation for a few years, and the end of 2020 saw a lot of municipalities opting for a “Sooty Piet”.
We lost Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
In less heavy news: if you’re a royalist (someone who is fond of the monarchy), this is the year that Harry and Meghan left the UK and moved to Canada and then the US. The Dutch royal family continued to be pretty drama-free and without controversy, aside from going on a vacation right as travel restrictions were being imposed. (They came back to the Netherlands instead of taking their vacation.)
2020 hasn’t been all doom and gloom. In the before-times, when people got together in person, the movie “Parasite”, a non-English-language movie, won Best Picture at the February Oscars.
Kamala Harris, a black and Asian woman, was elected Vice President, breaking numerous boundaries for the first time. Her name is pronounced “comma-la”, in case you were wondering. (I’m really excited to watch the amazing work she’ll be able to get done as the VP.)
In the last days of the year, the EU and UK reach agreements regarding Brexit.
That’s just the highlights. I glazed over A LOT. Humorist Dave Barry has a great recap that might make you laugh (https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/12/27/dave-barrys-year-review-2020/?arc404=true).
What about us? How have things been on a personal level?
Overall, it’s good. I mean, yes, we’ve been mainly indoors for the last 9 months, and that’s weird. I miss seeing people in person.
We were in the US from mid February to mid March to put our house up for sale, arriving back in the Netherlands just as the lockdowns were beginning. I noticed that my Dutch proficiency goes down each time we’re away to the US, but I usually rebound by going out and immersing myself in the language when we get back. So this time, it was different.
Staying in all the time has definitely created a social vacuum. I have embraced some of the quiet, and it’s been lovely to have months with nothing on the calendar. In the end though, I still enjoy socializing, and I’ve been finding comfort in playing Lord of the Rings Online and enjoying some of the communities I’ve found there. After the death of a friend, a bunch of us who had been out of touch started re-engaging electronically.
For me, it’s been a year of learning a lot more about online tools. I’ve learned a lot more about how to use Discord, Zoom, and a number of online board game websites. Billy and I have started having regular Zoom meetings with family in the US.
As the year went on, it became more and more clear that promoting Dutch culture via tourism was going to be challenging, at least for 2020. So I’ve been spending more time online, engaging with people socially, and thinking about the future.
What can we say as 2020 closes out? It’s been a tough year for many, and changing the calendar doesn’t erase the loss of income, bring back the loved ones who passed, or give us back the time we didn’t have with our friends and family. Hopefully, though, it gives us hopefulness for the future. We can assign all the divisiveness, nastiness, and hopelessness to 2020 and move forward with a new resolve.
It may be naïve, but I still believe in the goodness of people, and my hope for 2021 is that people will come together in new and creative ways to help each other. My hope is that we can recognize the harm and hurts that exist at the end of 2020 and work toward healing in 2021 and beyond.
Virtual hugs to you all.
