Revelation Days: 2021, Now Playing
What will this year have in store for us? (Photo Credit: istockphoto.com)
There are so many well known, and some very tired, phrases about change. “The only constant is change.” “Be the change you wish to see.” “There’s a change in the air.” “Only the stupidest and wisest of people don’t change.” Yadda yadda yadda, every era feels that the change during their time is very monumental. It’s all very subjective and relative. Well it’s no different right now because how can anyone on Earth not feel that the times, they are a changing.
Our world continues to rotate and orbit around the Sun but most of society including businesses, sports, arts, travel has been severely restricted or reduced to a crawl. This is not breaking news to you, I know. The funny thing is though, amidst our changing times, is the wildy unexpected positive changes that happened as well. Pollution, especially air pollution in 2020, reached all-time low levels not seen since the start of the industrial era. Social justice and racial equality finally emerged from the back-burner of the collective and onto the forefront, where they will stay until a better harmony is achieved. Compassion for our fellow humans has sprouted up now that we all have a shared empathy in trying to adjust and cope with the more disruptive changes of this last year. Who could have predicted all of that? The global virus shutdowns pulled the curtain back on the seemingly unceasing sprint of the capitalistic world, and some patient actors waiting backstage got into the spotlight.
That was 2020. It revealed hidden reserves of compassion, justice, and environmentalism albeit even by accident. But it was no accident, it was circumstance that revealed these things. What that circumstance also did was forge new skills, both physical and emotional. It also strengthened mental toughness and forged new levels of adaptability across the board. These new skills will be woven into the fabric of character for our generation and passed onto future generations. We will need them too, and everything else we learned in 2020, in the here and now of this new year of 2021. We may have new calendars but the circumstances remain the same.
Just six days into the new year and we have already seen a mob of concerned citizens, bigots, and Davey Crocket-types storm the Capitol Building to violently interrupt a Senate meeting. Six days. This type of thing hasn’t happened since, well, when Davey Crocket was alive. Maybe that was really him? What else does this year have in store for us?
I feel that 2021 will have it’s challenges, surprises, and unexpected twists and turns like last year. I feel it will also have some eye-wateringly positive moments as well. What can we look forward to? For one, the re-scheduled Summer Olympics are set to be happening in Tokyo. The Olympics are one of our best human endeavors to commemorate and coronate the virtues of peace, unity, honor, and self-idealization. Coming together, finally, after being distanced is going to be a joyful feeling the world won’t soon forget. Whatever way or form “coming together” takes in the future is going to be celebrated. I feel the way or the form will surprise us this year. Maybe it will be attending sporting events again? Maybe it will be attending benefit concerts? Maybe it will be something we couldn’t even fathom, like everyone last year learning how to teleconference.
The social justice and Black Lives Matter movement surged across American and the world in the middle months of 2020. Will something similar happen again? It might. There’s a movement similar to social justice that is simmering just below the surface. This could be the year it starts to boil and spill over into mass-consciousness. This simmering I’m referring to is the child-trafficking and pedophilia-exposure movement. Much like systemic racism and inequality, child-trafficking is one of those horrid aspects of our world that most people prefer not to acknowledge outright. One can claim “I’m not a racist/child-trafficker. So I don’t have to worry about it.” But what we learned with the Black Lives Matter movement and social equality realm is that we’re all interconnected more than we realize. Staying silent on systemic injustices and vile behavior is to turn the other cheek. Did we grow strong enough, mentally and emotionally resilient enough, in 2020 to be able to respond to a crisis such as child-trafficking and pedophelia?
In 2021, maybe cryptocurrency will become a broadly accepted financial tool and it will begin the decorporatization and decentralization of the internet? Perhaps this year will unveil deeper understandings about our climate and how our planet works. Perhaps the global-warming-centric climate change viewpoint will be replaced by a global-cooling-centric outlook? Maybe a giant sandstorm in Africa uncovers pieces from unknown ancient civilizations? Maybe we can actually go to real live concert? This New Year’s beginnings are clouded by uncertainty and questions about the future. What I know is certain is that 2021 will require that we apply everything we learned, felt, expanded upon in 2020. When challenges come, we will answer the call. Oh, and challenges and changes will come, but it’s nothing we can’t handle because we did 2020. Turn and face the strange. (Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.)