Remember June of 2020? It felt like the ground was shaking under our feet. We had 90 days of absolute chaos and despair, but also touching, inspirational moments of joy and reminders of our shared humanity. I wrote this after those 90 days and we used it in our Fine Point newsletter. I think of it often - all that we lived through in such a short period of time. Do you remember how you felt during this time? You got through it. Whatever is weighing you down right now, you'll get through this too.
Congratulations to all of us who are living through history. It’s exhausting, isn’t it?
Are you having as difficult of a time focusing on work as I am? I mean, sure…this novel coronavirus comes along, and we learn all about PPE, symptoms, how much our neighbors love toilet paper; we try to buy masks (sold out) and a thermometer (sold out) and we watch how many videos about how to wash our hands. OK, we’ve got this. It’s a once in a century event. We’ll be careful, but we’ve got this. We miss hugging people, but we’ve got this. 1 in 4 of us are unemployed, but we’ve got this.
During this turbulent time, the President announces that voting by mail is fraudulent, issues an executive order to regulate social media companies, suggests that a former congressman is likely a murderer, and fires five inspectors general. So, you know, super reassuring.
Amidst the fear and grief are nonstop pictures of kindness and beauty. Americans buy groceries for their elderly neighbors. People offer health care workers support in a million little ways and honor them like never before. Everyone learns how to sew masks to donate. Teachers organize caravans of honks and waves to tell their students how much they miss them.
As if we had bandwidth for more, George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer is recorded and shared with the world. We all witness the 8 minutes and 46 seconds of a man pleading that he couldn’t breathe and finally, calling for his mama as he died. It stuns us and makes us feel shamed, angry, hopeless.
Again, amidst our darkest moment of grief and anger, some protests start. In Minneapolis, in a few nearby states, wait, wow, quite a few states, wait, EVERY STATE in the country, wait, the entire world? We all came together and got to experience one of the most beautiful moments in history. More importantly, We The People collectively bear witness and we listen and we learn. We The People get just a little closer to our humanity, just a tiny bit closer to the best of us.
I feel like I have whiplash, THESE WERE OUR LAST 90 DAYS! We’ve lived through terrible luck, terrible incompetence, terrible tragedy. And then, followed immediately by nonstop reminders of how good we can be and our amazing capacity to take care of each other. It happens with everything, by the way. It feels big right now because these events are indeed BIG. But even little bad things are always followed by a good thing. Start paying attention - you will notice.
So anyway, what was I talking about? Oh right. Are you also having a tough time focusing on work?