Time for some hard truth. 2020 didn’t totally suck.

This year was a global dumpster fire compared to nearly other year in my lifetime. I mean, we’re in a pandemic and the world is a scary place. How could anything good have happened this year? Well, it did. I challenge you to resist the urge to declare 2020 as completely no good, rotten and useless, and find the positive things that rose above the garbage. You might have to look really hard.

The world shut down, and they forced us to stay home! This meant more family time. I’ve spent more hours with my kids and wife in the last 9 months of 2020 than any previous year. And guess what? I actually like them! We’ve had to change the way we do things and not getting out and seeing the world (when other people are around) is challenging, but being “forced” to stay home hasn’t been bad from a family perspective. I rarely felt lonely, and I’m grateful for that. I’ll be glad when being out in the world is a safe option, but immediate family time is always limited, so being able to maximize it has been great.

Online meetings suck, and people don’t know how to use mute! OK, people don’t know how to mute their devices and that’s super annoying, but think about how quickly we went from needing to travel to an actual place—dodging traffic, finding parking, getting a babysitter—to showing up to your event in your sweatpants. We’ve done meetings for school, work, hobbies, and family gatherings. Think of it this way—we’re resilient and have made this crappy situation a little less terrible by linking up online. Meeting on video is now going to make our lives easier, eventually. 2020 was just a crash course.

Online school is not even close to the same as in-person learning! Obviously, this is true. It’s not the same, and I wish it wasn’t so different. Even learning in person is hard for kids wearing masks, or color-coded overshirts at recess so they don’t commingle with other classes. The online dynamic stinks now, but will help our kids in the future with college and work online. It’s a sudden reality today, that will pay dividends beyond 2020. I’ve had the opportunity to hear and see (literally hear and see) my kids’ teachers every day they are in class. These educators are simply excellent. They’ve accepted the challenge and given 100 percent to their kids to make the best of a bad situation. That said, when the time is right and safe, let’s get these kids back to the classroom.

Wearing a mask stinks! Yes, it does, but it’s how we keep each other safe. It’s about protecting yourself and the people around you. Also, it keeps your nose warm in these chilly Eastern Washington winters.

The health care system is overloaded! Yes, it is, and the unfortunate reality is that 300,000 (and counting) people have died of COVID. Over 17 million American’s have had COVID. As we head into Christmas, COVID is raging. This is not something to be made light of, but we can look for positives (no pun here). Our country is finally recognizing the health care workers who are on the front lines of this fight as the heroes they always have been. It took a heck of a lot to get there, and it’s about dang time. Finally, we can honor an army of health care workers who care for our loved ones. We’ll look back on 2020 and 2021 as the years we finally gave these heroes their due.

This year in politics was disgusting and sad! I’ve been more disappointed in our collective elected officials this year than ever before. The us vs. them politics have further divided us and made simple disagreements into uncrossable chasms. The only thing I can say here is that I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel mid-January 2021. Reasonable people can prevail. Compromise and collaboration are not dirty words.

Protests in the streets!
In today’s world, change doesn’t come without significant involvement from many, many people. The killing of George Floyd sparked a movement that shouldn’t have needed to happen in 2020. Sadly, we’re seeing it takes something major to move equality even an inch. His death gave rise to silenced voices across the globe who said enough is enough. Waiting patiently for things to get better will not work.

Decentralized political movements, like Black Lives Matter are necessary to level the playing field for minority populations. So where’s the good in this in 2020? Has the problem been fixed? Um, not by a long shot. But it’s recognized and understood more and more every day. This is credit to the brave people who dare say that Black Lives Matter.

One of the key things I’ll take away from 2020 is a sense of appreciation for things I’ve routinely taken for granted. Only in their absence did I see how much I needed them. Seeing my favorite teams play. Kid’s events. Salty movie popcorn. Holidays with family. Travel. Eating at some place other than my house. This year is forgettable, but unforgettable, too. We’re going to remember all the awful stuff, because that’s easy. The challenge is to see the good as well.