They say that hindsight is 2020. They’ve been saying that for a long time, but it’s never been more appropriate than right now.
The calendar has turned to 2021. 2020 is over. It’s behind us. We made it through the year, and we don’t have to go through it again. Goodbye, 2020! (and good riddance!) But, that doesn’t mean we can’t look back at 2020 and learn from what we went through.
A lot of things changed in 2020 and we can sort through those changes and decide what we want to keep for 2021 and the future, and what we want to leave on the junk heap of the year that is finished.
Take social distancing, for example. For the most part, I wish social distancing was something we could do away with. It would be nice to be able to shake hands with someone, give someone a pat on the back, or maybe even actually hug somebody.
But, on the other hand, social distancing has its benefits. It’s nice to stand in line at the grocery store without worrying if the person in line behind you is going to run their shopping cart into the back of your legs. With social distancing, you rarely get close enough to others to have to worry about their bad breath or body odor. (And if those things are strong enough for you to smell, you have a built in excuse to put some more space between you and the offending party.)
Before 2020, “zoom” was just a fun word describing fast movement; it was used in Mazda commercials to emphasize how sporty their cars were.
But now the word brings to mind video conference calls featuring people who don’t quite understand the concept of the mute button, or how unflattering a camera angle up into their nostrils can be. Still, one thing 2020 has taught us is that what we used to do in a two-hour in-person meetings can often be taken care of with a quick, half-hour online chat. Just don’t get too extravagant with those Zoom backgrounds – no one really believes you are sitting in front of the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel Tower.
And, while many of us have missed the experience of going out to the movie theater in 2020, it has been nice to have more in-home streaming options available. It was wonderful to sit as a family and watch the new Pixar movie “Soul” without having to worry about taking a 4 year-old out for a potty break.
So, while there was a lot of nasty stuff going on in 2020, hindsight says it wasn’t all bad. For more funny-ish stuff, check out slowjoe40.com. (Capell is a Serve Daily contributor.)
