If Covid, wildfires, and everything else 2020 has thrown our way has taught me nothing else, it is how adaptable humans are. Change is never easy, but look around now at how many people wear masks like they are normal. A year ago if someone walked into a store with a mask on, it looked like they were going to rob the place. Now if someone walks into a store WITHOUT a mask on, it looks like they are going to give you Covid. Amazing.
Let me start by saying I believe in science and vaccines, masks and research. I dislike that people don’t listen to experts who know these things. I’ll probably write an article about that in the future.
So let’s think back to 2019 for a minute. There was an impeachment that didn’t really lead to anything since it wasn’t upheld. Brexit was ongoing, some college admissions cheating, Notre-Dame caught fire and had massive damage, the first bi-racial (to my knowledge) baby for Great Britain royalty was born, gun violence continued to be bad, and a lot of the rain forests of Brazil burned. I would say this is a fairly typical year really. Some good, some bad but overall nothing too far out of the ordinary.
Now let’s look at 2020 so far, and we still have two-and-a-half months to go. Australia had some nasty fires, as did USA in the west. Covid-19 plagued most of the world, and continues to do so with over seven million dead and counting, over 210,000 in the US so far. The stock market temporarily crashed. Black Lives Matter and everything about racial injustice that has been boiling since, well the beginning of our country. We have shenanigans happening around the election (but I guess that is every election). Let’s also not forget about many hurricanes hitting the east coast, as it continues to be a terrible season for that.
So that’s 2020, at least some of the big points. I’m sure there are a lot more, but that’s not really the point. The point of this article is that we have an amazing ability to adapt to all of these things. Has it been a terrible year for all of us? YES. If you read the last post, I’m going through my own problems too. The stress of 2020 continues to build and hopefully 2021 will be a bit easier.
Aside from all of the tragedies of the year, people continue on. I think the biggest thing people need to do in times such as these, is identify and express how we feel. Talk about it, realize that everything is NOT okay. Be willing to accept that as part of the natural cycle and to eventually get past it. I believe that is the core of adaptability. It isn’t “having a solution to every problem.” It is being willing to realize there are problems that you can’t control, and learning to live with it.