What 2020 Is Really About
Building a sustainable future
In the first few weeks of the pandemic, the one word that summed up the unique experience we all faced was: unprecedented. Yes indeed, we hadn’t faced anything of this magnitude since the early twentieth century when the world was gripped by the Spanish flu; an era most of us cannot relate to.
As weeks and months have passed by and we have adjusted to this new normal, we have realized the far greater lesson to come out of the coronavirus pandemic. Whilst we can never make up for the immense loss of life, we can better appreciate the gift of life. We are reminded of our own mortality and our very fragile existence, which we so often take for granted.
Gripped by uncertainty, we retreated to our own homes to wait it out. We learned to pay more attention to our physical and mental health. We slowed down. Crawled. We learned to take a big deep breath. A sigh. We found a sustainable rhythm.
We stopped driving far from home. We took no holidays abroad. We worked from home. We learned to share our environment. We gave up our wants for society’s needs. We stopped rushing to nowhere. We found a sustainable pace.
In the meanwhile, our planet took a breath. Waterways cleared up. Pollution levels fell. Earth vibrations dipped. Animals roamed free. We finally understood what it means to build a sustainable planet.
Planes lay still on runways far from their more glorious presence in the skies. We had to cancel business travel. We took meetings online. We amplified remote work. We stopped commuting. We found a sustainable medium.
We learned. We unlearned. We confronted hard truths around racial inequality. We questioned governments. We lobbied politicians. We spoke up. We gave a voice to gross injustices. Because a sustainable world is one where everyone is equal.
We woke up to broken systems and archaic laws. We highlighted the abuse of power. We got tired of the same old rhetoric. We knew we could do better. We knew life as it was, was no longer sustainable.
Challenges bring about opportunities to reinvent and change the narrative. To start again. And we are at the crossroads to create that sustainable new normal.
As economies open up and life’s luxuries lure us back again we have to remember what we learned through this all. To find a sustainable rhythm to life. To have empathy. To be compassionate.
2020 is far from cancelled. It is the year we all needed. A year of change. A year of growth. A year that unified us all regardless of nationality, religion or income level.
Life’s wins and losses don’t last. It’s the lessons we learn and the experiences we have, which take us forward. And 2020 is the year that brought us so much closer to the sustainable future we all want.
