In 2019, we sat around a big Thanksgiving table with lots of family and friends; we sang Christmas carols loudly and off-key in a church packed with people; we went to an over-crowded New Year’s Eve party surrounded by strangers…but not so much in 2020. 2020 has been unexpected and horrific on so many levels.
However, for many people, there have also been many happy moments in 2020. Families welcomed babies into the world and couples celebrated anniversaries. There were weddings, birthdays and graduations. At MoodClue, we lived vicariously through our customers as they celebrated happy events by using our liquid chalk markers to write on apartment windows, car windshields and store windows.
We have every reason to believe that 2021 will be an easier year for most Americans (and hopefully, everyone around the world). In 2021, a medically-proven vaccine will be more readily available, scientists and doctors will come up with new cures and the economy will open back up. And perhaps most importantly, we will get to feel that general togetherness again. We pray for an easier 2021 but also hope we don’t lose some of the hard-earned lessons that the Covid-19 pandemic has forced upon us. One of favorite articles about the lessons learned is from KevinMD.com.
He points out 5 major pandemic lessons and those are:
- This world is interconnected.
- Humans are social creatures, and we need social interaction and human contact.
- Humans are adaptive, and life is more flexible than we think.
- There is goodness and humanity, even in the darkness.
- Life is precious. Be grateful for what we have.
We completely agree with these 5 lessons (though we might have reversed the order!) and the MoodClue team was lucky enough to witness goodness and humanity in full neon color despite the darkness of 2020. We saw our customers express support to their neighbors and essential workers by drawing rainbows and optimistic messages on their windows. Drive-by parades helped families, schools and nursing homes feel togetherness despite being apart. We have faith that the world will be stronger, better and gentler in the years ahead.
Dennis Snower, the President of the Global Solutions Initiative, wrote an in-depth speech for the Global Solutions Summit 2020 on lessons learned this year. The opening address is thought-provoking and worth reading about. This is one of our favorite paragraphs:
“We are brought face to face with the most basic questions of life. What are we here for? What have we done with our lives? What do we yet wish to do if given the opportunity? Who is truly important on our lives? What is it that we truly cherish? The pandemic leads us to some painful insights: If we know who is truly important to us and what we truly cherish, then why have we spent so little of our lives pursuing these things?”
Dennis Snower, President of the Global Solutions Initiative
As we close out 2020, we would like to thank all of our customers, vendors and employees. Thank you for always making us smile (especially this year when we desperately needed smiles), supporting our small family-owned business, and being positive and hopeful. We wish for all of you a safe, healthy, and happy 2021!