The year that time forgot…

For most of us, this year will be referenced for many generations as 2020. We joke about it already…”yea its 2020, what else is new” right?

Well, here are the words that will have new meaning for us all…forever:

(Covid-19, social distancing, contact tracing, mortality rates, air born, and herd immunity just to name a few.)

These words may be familiar now, but ask any one of us back in Dec of 2019 and we would have said, who knows what?

This virus has touched some people more than others. Some profoundly by losing a family member or a friend, or we may have had a friend touched by it, or even we may have contracted it ourselves. However, if you are like many who have not been directly touched by COVID, you have been touched by it in many other ways. The virus did not need to invade your body it has evaded all our very psyche. It has created fear, anxiety, depression, and isolation from our family and friends. At times it has made us choose a side or even lose a friend. This will have a profound impact on generations to come. Many articles and books will be published to explain how and what happened.

So, what have we learned so far from 2020 besides the obvious of not to taking for granted the things that are somewhat ordinary in our lives?

Here is the bigger question, how will we use what we have learned from this past year in our relationships, work, and life in general going forward? Or will we just resume with life as it was before the pandemic just as we all forgot about the pandemic of 1918?

Let’s face it, many of us never even heard of the Spanish flu before other than a passing paragraph in a history book.

“In the pandemic of 1918, between 50 and 100 million people are thought to have died, representing as much as 5% of the world’s population. Half a billion people were infected.”

Here is my wish for 2021 and beyond...

We are all in this together! Seems simple but oh how we forget how much we need to look out and support each other as human beings. One earth made up of billions of people interacting and socializing like no other time in the history of the world. Respecting others space and lives while also taking accountability for our own actions. The pandemic spreads from one person to another, not by group, nor by race or religion. It could care less... we need to take responsibility for our actions because they do affect others. Yes, even the strangers. Why because we are connected by our humanity! It seems that the virus has brought out the good and bad in people. Now it is our turn to choose which path we want to take going forward…the self-centered approach or the humane approach.

We all must find a way of working together, respecting each other’s thoughts and ideas, discover resiliency in ourselves, contribute to the welfare of others, being compassionate and sympathetic to the needs of other people at all times. Love and supporting each other in ways that promote our individuality! While accepting we are all different but the same, while combining our strengths to forge the future for the next generation and their children to come.

Yes, it sounds far fetched but didn’t a pandemic prior to 2020 sound that way too…we owe 1918 at least that.

Tony Degliomini

#BelieveLikeMe