An unpredicted year
The year 2020 will be
etched in memory for many reasons, but we must start with a sense of gratitude
in the midst of circumstances and people in charge who were anything but. It
began with a great sense of hope and expectations, none dashed, just delayed for
more advantageous times.
As I was returning
from South Africa, I was supposed to resume a contractual engagement, just before
I boarded my flight, I received an email that it had fallen through. It left me
no time to reschedule and delay my return, the wintry cold of Manchester
beckoned.
As I was
inadvertently thrown onto the job market, within two weeks of my return, I was
down with a water infection that landed me in hospital, with some observation
the prognosis was better than initially feared, I was discharged and treated as
an out-patient but the time to full recovery took about a month.
The cloud that
shadowed
This was as the
threatening Coronavirus was looming in the horizon, ignored by heads of
populist governments whose penchant for wishing away big problems with
simplistic but unrealistic solutions were met with a reality that did not
subscribe to the gullible bullshit that got them into power. When the UK government
eventually acted, it was the only option they had and what a disaster it has
been since then.
By the end of April,
a job opportunity came up with the engagement process so different from usual,
the context and concept of the workplace had so radically changed, and it
transpired that an interview conducted by answering scripts was aborted for an
on-boarding process and within days I was in work from May.
The pandemic had
taken hold, the lean months presenting challenges that were assuaged by team
meditation exercises that lasted 21 days beyond which faith and resolution
brought calm as things swirled around with no inkling as to what will become
the immediate talk less of the distant future.
Hope is a spirit
Each day, Brian and I
conversed in the hope that soon we would be able to meet up, but the pandemic
stood as an impediment, no progress could be made on that matter as lockdowns
and tiers tested the resolve of the citizenry even as it exposed corruption,
ineptitude and incompetence in many countries with the UK carrying the worst
news of the whole of Europe until Italy recently overtook in the death toll.
Desire and longing
not dimmed, the opportunity came, and it was seized, to end the year in the company
of love and beauty could not have been a better wish fulfilled. We need to find
ways to negotiate living with this pandemic, taking all care and precaution to
keep safe. It has cast a dark gloom over our humanity and much as vaccines will
help, it must not be sold as a panacea. It is one of the tools we need as we
understand better how to contain and overcome this virus.
Pained and sorrowed
With 72,548 dead from
CoVID-19 in the UK and another 28,033 dead in South Africa, there has been great
grief and sorrow in the land for which especially in the UK I cannot find any
reason not to hold Boris Johnson’s government for the carnage, it has been so fortuitous
to have had such an unconscionable kakistocracy in Downing Street when demands
of probity, capacity, and ability were needed to tackle a pandemic. If there is
any justice in this world, for the lives, needlessly lost through the
mishandling of this pandemic the people in this government would be held fully
accountable.
Closer to home though
not due to the virus, in October, I lost my stepmother so suddenly, just 4 days
after her 56th birthday, even as I have issues with my father on
this matter, my priority is the comfort and security of my brothers. There is
much to do. Another two weeks after, my father lost his best friend from
childhood. We were visited by mortality so close and venerations with remembrances
to be done.
Arise to the new
In all, we learnt
that communication was critical, contact was important, concern was human, and
consideration was empathetic. Friends mattered, neighbours succoured, dreams
lived large, hopes never die, faith sets you on the course to things you cannot
see, a long pause presages a new beginning, the year 2020 was the year of reset.
I am not aware of any prescience that foresaw this passing year, but it will
pass into history for better stories to be told.
Entering 2021 will
have its difficulties but human ingenuity is such that when presented with great
adversity there is resourcefulness and innovation to bring healing, progress, and prosperity to renew, replenish, restore and rebuild what was lost. We are
grateful for life through the year past and look forward to new awakenings. Have a
wonderful and Happy New Year!
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