Loose Ends
All Day By Kramers at 1530 19th Street, NW, Washington DC on Saturday afternoon, 12 December 2020 © Elvert Barnes, CC BY-SA 2.0
By Dani Martin
The Covid-19 pandemic has constricted our lives to the point where time has almost become meaningless. And as December 31st draws near, we begin to round the corner on the most historic year of our lifetimes. It’s almost as if we’ve been living in a fog, unable to ascertain when the pandemic began. The days, weeks, and months all blur together into distant memories. Couples have canceled their weddings, workers have lost their jobs, families have postponed travel plans, and visits to grandparents have become even more infrequent than before. We now share drinks over Zoom calls, go on socially distant walks outside, and say our goodbyes through hospital windows. We’ve gone months without crowding our favorite bars, attending a live concert, or even just a trip to the store without a mask. We’ve seen a country divided, watched pain and suffering in the media, marched with Black Lives Matter, voted in a new President-elect, and witnessed the discovery of a vaccine.
It is the desire, or perhaps desperation, for freedom in the New Year that fosters introspection. Another year has not just vanished; Covid-19 took it from us. The pandemic stole not only vacations but, more importantly, the lives of family, friends, and strangers whom we’ve never met. We all live different lives and have different experiences with Covid-19. But we all can share in the fact that we have lost control. Those once tedious and repetitive routines that configured our lives are now distorted, and we find ourselves working to reclaim structure. 2020 has forced us into our homes, alone and without purpose. We ask ourselves, “Where did all the time go? What do I have to show for it?” A year feels like a lifetime.
Even though the end of this year does not signify the end of our troubles, the mark of a new year helps us move forward. What will we create in 2021? What will we do to feel alive again, to lose ourselves once more, not in monotony but in joy? How will we make up for lost time? We look to the future for the day that we might revel in the present again. Resolutions are a New Year tradition, but this year they’re even more poignant. All things taken for granted in a pre-pandemic world, we will cherish in the New Year: time with family, dinner with friends, intimacy, and love.
And it is in the fashion of 2020 that this year ends in another historic moment: the Great Conjunction. We enter into the Age of Aquarius as Jupiter and Saturn align, and come together to form one bright, burning star in the sky. It has been over 800 years since the two planets have been so close, and regardless of personal beliefs or doubts, it’s significance is evident: we cannot regress into the past. There are things in this world that we can never fully understand. But there is hope in this uncertainty, that though there is work to be done, we still have the chance to do it. At the dawn of a new beginning, we have the opportunity not just for rectification but for change, growth, and progress. We need only to accept the challenge for improvement and the hope for an even better future than what we could have ever imagined. Life has undoubtedly changed in ways we never anticipated. We will carry the hardships and experiences of 2020 with us always. And though it may seem impossible to tie this year up neatly with ribbons and bows, we still can find strength in perseverance.
2020, you’re fired.
