As the calendar turns to a new year, many people sit down and write resolutions for the upcoming year, hoping they can improve their lives - exercise more or lose weight - or whatever the particular resolution entails. A majority of New Year's resolutions are broken by the middle of February, the remainder by the middle of April. That leaves me wondering why so many people even bother making resolutions in the first place. I suppose it helps them feel better about themselves, because maybe they can look forward to reaching a particular goal for themselves. Whatever you thought was the most challenging year of your life probably got challenged by the dumpster of a year known as 2020. This year brought so much uncertainty and fear that most of us are beyond ready to turn the page and jump headfirst into 2021.
It is a popular tradition to set New Year's resolutions at the beginning of the year. But, since 2020 was a year unlike any other, do resolutions even deserve a place on your to-do list? Many people set resolutions in the name of good health or kicking some kind of vice, which seems harmless. After a year, though, when everything got turned upside down and uncertainty is the running theme, is it time to finally ditch resolutions for something more useful?
After a difficult year, the last thing we need to do is put more pressure on ourselves or set a goal that might not be realistic during a global pandemic. There is nothing inherently bad about setting a New Year's resolution. Where things can get problematic is when you are doing it from a place of pressure or obligation - when you feel like you have to set a New Year's resolution to hop on the bandwagon like everyone else.
The year 2020 has been humbling in the face of nature. The coronavirus pandemic rattled the earth and revealed just how unstable the ground beneath us was. For journalists, the avalanche of life-or-death news crashed into an industry already beset by acute financial strain, the warping effects of disinformation, and long-standing inequity. It is easy to look at a media ecosystem confronting the realities of our distressed planet and the people who inhabit it.
In the spring we were faced with climate issues and discussions of the Doomsday clock and the stark reality that our time may be running out in the threat of existential global climate change.
Then came the fires in California, Colorado and other parts of the West faced with drought conditions unseen in our lifetime and the seeming lack of concern from those in power as entire states were faced with extinction. Alaska is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the United States, oil production dominates state policy, and climate activists find coverage sorely lacking. The most ubiquitous signifier of the climate crisis, and a decidedly problematic mascot, is the polar bear.
In the summer, people poured out of quarantine to join an uprising for racial justice led by Black Lives Matter. Where the presidential campaigns had stalled out political pundits were replaced by medical experts. The protests carried a personal sense of political purpose. We all observed how quickly the press folded demands for police abolition into an election narrative. In previous years, the question of taking money away from police did not register on the radar of candidates or campaign reporters. Now, suddenly, it had exploded as a central campaign plot point. The underinformed takes raged.
Most Americans now prefer to watch, instead of read, their news. If the tensions - and outright hostilities - present in the Democratic Party are also coursing through the halls of the network that aims to cover it, you would think that might make for good television. Instead, what the audience sees is a breathless, perpetual four-alarm fire drill, a confused jumble of viewpoints tipped to favor the old guard, and personalities forged in the Darwinian crucible of Nielsen quarter-hour rating reports.
At the end of the year, I always like to look back at the year that was and reflect on what happened to see if I can possibly do things different in the upcoming year. This year was different for me in many ways. I started a new job in the beginning of the year that, ultimately, changed as a result of the pandemic that ruled most of the calendar year. However, in the midst of it all, I still managed to hold on to that job through the remainder of the year. On a lighter note, I did manage to avoid the pandemic, although many people I knew had symptoms or were exposed to it in one way or another. I experienced loss, as a friend left the world all too soon as a result of cancer, something I am personally familiar with in my own life as well.
That being said, I think it is safe to say that 2020 did not turn out the way any of us expected. Anyone who sat down at the end of last year and wrote out their goals for this year, probably did not list surviving a global pandemic as one of those goals. In spite of it all, we managed to survive and make adjustments as needed to make it through as the world, and America, changed around us on an almost daily basis. One thing that has been a light in my life during the past year are those people who I shared my life with on a steady basis: Those I work with, those I hike with and those who struggled through so much. I also went through some of the darkest days of my life, brightened somewhat by a comet that appeared in the sky and the conjunction of the planets giving light to the darkest days of the year, perhaps much like the Star of Bethlehem did so many years ago.
It has also been a challenging year for so many: loss of jobs, failed relationships, home schooling, virtual meetings, illness and the strain on relationships brought about by a politically tumultuous year. The world just felt so heavy this year. The bright side, although often hard to see, was the growth so many of us experienced this year. Each person I watched struggle through this year has handled their challenges head on and become so much stronger as a result. The pain and discomfort each of us has gone through, while at times was extremely difficult to navigate, has led us to where we are now and is continuing to guide us to become the people we are meant to be in the future. Sometimes, when the world feels all crazy, all we need to do is take a step back and realize what is truly important in our lives: family, friends and health.
I am looking forward to 2021 and not just to move on from 2020, but to taking in all the incredible challenges and life lessons that were given to me this year and applying them to have a happier and healthier 2021.
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