Hopeful

It is the season to be positive. Expectant. Of better things.

Why wouldn’t we be? 2020 was a year of awful. Unexpected bad things, worst case scenarios playing out for many people, and then the end of year and what do we have? Christmas or just the plain Holidays and New Year’s.

Social norms taught us to be happy this time of year. We celebrate the end of a year and the beginning of a fresh one. What’s so bad about that? It’s all good, right? Well, maybe.

At least this year we can rightfully feel 2021 will be better than 2020; it must be. How worse could it get? Well, let’s not test that concept. A lot could still go wrong in 2021 despite its promising start with new vaccines to end the pandemic. For one, the vaccines might boomerang and their effectiveness fail. Not likely, but possible. If the pandemic carries on a lot longer – the effect of poor vaccines – then we enter a Modern Dark Ages era. Our economies will need reinvention. Our cultural norms will need to be redesigned. Housing and food/diets will change to fit production and supply realities. Transportation modes and networks will shift to meet existing requirements. Commuting and work locations will morph toward home and small business sites.  Education in both content and process will become very different from past experience.

In short, the world and life as we now know it will be vastly different. Surely this will not be so?!

Time will tell us the outcomes. We will pivot to whatever we face. We will adapt. We always have. Maybe with a smile or most likely with a pout. But adapt we will. There is no alternative.

Yes, no alternative. Thus, the motivation to create, invent and innovate. That is the root of hopeful in this day and age. Hopeful. What we see, feel and do, will cause us to act in a way to make the best of it. We’ve done this in the past. Our ancestors did as well. Humankind has always done this. And we will too.

So, best we put on a happy face and make for fun. 2020 is grinding down to be one of the worst years ever, so 2021 is likely to be a booming year of positivity.

All we have to do is decide to make it so.

Just do it!

December 11, 2020