If ever you lose the will to read this, please enjoy the sight of a duck walking outside your window 🦆 It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen this year 🤣
A couple of weeks ago, I sat, pen and pad at my work table, trying to think of the best way to carry on developing ‘Today’s Date’.
I attempted to place myself back at the time of the year the pieces are set and was reminded that these 366 days have seemed more like 1096 (that’s 3 years in the strictest sense).
I, like many, have needed to adjust to a different way of living, and count my blessings that I didn’t need to learn to merely exist, and my heart goes out to anyone who has lost a lot more personally, professionally or even spiritually.
When thinking about all that we as a United Kingdom, a world in fact, have gone through, the following made-up exchange from about 10 years in the future ran through my mind:
Person A: “How bad was it?”
Person B: “Pretty bad”
Person A: “2020 bad?”
Person B: “Jeez, not that bad!”
And weird as it was, it made me chuckle slightly. A few moments later, and a run through Canva, the following was posted online:
Yes, 2020 is now the bar by which all things terrible and fractured will be measured going forward.
Some things will forever be known as uniquely ‘2020’. Such as the fall of Donald Trump’s presidency, but the realisation that the ‘idea’ of him or ‘Make America Great Again’ will not be going away any time soon. For better or worse, the plaster (or band-aid for the American readers) has been ripped off many, many wounds in that vast country and they have a lot of work to do in order to heal.
Over here, Brexit has just become a fully fledged reality, signed and delivered. The future is uncertain, despite the predictions of those on both sides of the coin, and we will all need to look out for each other as we navigate the largely unknown.
Of course, there has been what was described by some as an ‘awakening’ started by the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and exploded by the death of George Floyd. I’m not going to retread my ‘I said’ post other than to say that as I predicted, the push-back is well and truly on, partly by way of conflating message with politics. A challenge going forward will be to retain ground and not be pushed back into the corner.
Even the most positive of people have had their health, resolve and faith (in fellow humans, and in some instances, in God) tested, and here most of us are, on December 31st 2020, getting ready to bid a good riddance in ways we never have before.
As we look forward to 2021, I’m hoping the fightback against what we have faced is well and truly on and not a proverbial false dawn, but at the same time, I’m hoping we don’t simply ‘go back’ to everything as it was before as I’d like to think we can take what we have learned about ourselves and grow from it.
As for me, I’m hopeful for 2021. Not just professionally, but personally. Progress delayed, but progress all the same. Little seeds are already being planted in that regard, and I might have a few things to share over the coming year.
And I wish the same for you all 😊
My main wish is that 2020 does not become the start of the ‘normal’ going forward and instead in 3-5 becomes a didactic meme.
Thanks for reading… if you did, otherwise, I hope you enjoyed the duck 🤣
Lanrefiction Notepad 