The Lost Year
When all is said and done, we will probably have lost a full year to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Lost Year. If this country is anything, it is opportunities. So, we are talking about a full year of lost opportunities. Think of a child’s brand-new existence and how long a year must feel to each of them. Think about the elderly with maybe only a few more precious years hunkering down in fear that even those few years might be taken away if they or someone else is not careful. Think about the rest of us tasked with the responsibility for caring for both generations.
This Lost Year does not affect us all equally nor does it care what your individual story says about you and your place in this world. It does not care if you are an aspiring artist, a gifted musician, a dedicated educator, a health care worker, or a new mother. The Lost Year will have its day.
The history of this Lost Year will be a generational story told by future parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. How many children yet to be born will hear their elderly relatives talk about The Great Pandemic of 2020 or will they call it the 2019 Pandemic? Much of what will come to be known about this time has not been written yet. Future generations may have their own pandemics, plagues, and health crises, and this time may seem like just a small blip on the radar of world-wide events amidst those yet to be recorded.
As this Lost Year continues to unfold, there seems to be a visceral need to take stock of how we were affected and changed and how we adapted to the reality of the planet we now inhabit. One clear adaption among the countless others is the broad social justice awakening seen in the streets all over the country and around the world. Tumultuous times breed new life into the next generation of worriers fighting against stubbornly persistent social inequities.
Note to self. Never forget how the Lost Year changed the destiny of this country and the world. Apply the lessons learned to my life every day and dedicate my remaining years to making this world a little bit better so that the next generation, and the generation after that, and the next, look back at this time and see the seeds of the beginning of something extraordinary.
