2020: My Year of Saving Graces
Call this what you will: a list of silver linings, gratitudes (not platitudes), or — and not in the strict religious sense — saving graces. Not to polish this supreme turd of a year, but it has, far beyond family and friends, provided each of us with a new opportunity to rediscover our world by reclaiming appreciation for the everyday wonders among us.
In no particular order, here are my top-ten saving graces for MMXX, Twenty-Twenty; two-oh, two-oh-no!; 2020.
1. Nurses
In the best of times, nurses don’t have easy jobs. Now consider this year: sandwiched in the competing priorities of hospital administrations, physicians, patients, the pandemic, and protestors of the anti-mask variety, nurses have shined in their understated way through horrific conditions. Nurses are my hands-down superheroes this year. Under resourced, over achievers who lay it on the line every day for all of us. It is my hope that society will support you and the trials you face stemming from your heroism during the pandemic. Thank you, thank you.
2. MacKenzie Scott
Wouldn’t you know it would take a woman to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and quickly initiate direct giving to frontline charitable organizations when these nonprofits — and our communities — needed it most? She recognized the impossible urgency of the crisis and didn’t dilly dally around to make resources possible; MacKenzie gave $4.2 billion to 384 nonprofits around the country over just the past few months, and she did this without a creating a charitable foundation and a lengthy, laborious, and taxing process on the nonprofits. She paid her commitments upfront and gave to these critical nonprofits without conditions. In so doing, she brought tears of joy to so many and also created a streamlined model of giving for others of significant means and hearts to follow. Thank you.
3. Nonprofits
Nonprofits have stood so tall during this pandemic as vital lifeblood for our communities around the world. I’m grateful to so many deserving nonprofits; here are just three that serve as good examples: 1% for the Planet, which enables businesses and individuals to pledge and participate in solving our world’s woes by contributing to environmental nonprofits; Semilla Nueva, a nonprofit using science — yes, SCIENCE! — and biofortified corn to fight chronic malnutrition in Guatemala; and Outdoor Afro, an organization working for social and environmental justice by promoting Black connections and leadership in nature. To those who stumble across this post, you have one day plus to make a donation that counts as a write-off for 2020. So give, please! And to all my nonprofit friends — thank you all for the change you are making in the world.
4. Anand Giridharadas
Firecracker! And that shock of hair! I am grateful for Anand because He Speaks Truth To Power, without fear (or so it seems, in this case power being what he calls the “plutes,” short for plutocrats). Quick witted and a wonderful writer, Anand argues that we can’t entrust solutions for our planet’s ills to those who helped create the problems in the first place. He offers up an against-the-tide prescription of an empowered government as a credible force that can and should wield more power than it does — for equality, for climate action, and for much, much more. His book’s, Winners Take All, is a good place start. You can get a taste for Anand by following him on twitter or by signing up for his newsletter, The Ink. Anand, thank you.
5. The Stoics
I’m most familiar with Marcus Aurelius, the last leader of the Stoic school of philosophy, through his book, Meditations, which has remained a companion on my nightstand for years. I turned to the Stoics during 2020 to keep my head from exploding and my heart from cracking open. Lessons: Heighten the experience of your mental health by focusing on your positive emotions; don’t dwell in the past or on the bad. Understand that nature is rational. And try to live the virtues: wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. While I didn’t succeed 100% of the time, in some ways I think the Stoics saved me this year.
6. John Steinbeck
If the Stoics didn’t save me, then perhaps John Steinbeck, did. I found sanctuary in the truth of Steinbeck and his perspective on, yes, evil: “All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up. It isn’t that the evil thing wins — it never will — but that it doesn’t die.” I’m grateful for this centering and clarifying thought as it gave me marching orders — not to defeat evil, but that it will always exist and that my job is to keep it at bay. Grateful, too, for East of Eden (mindblower) and so many other Steinbeck literary works of humanity.
7. Dolores Huerta
I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know of Dolores Huerta until just last summer. Which means I lived more than six decades without the knowledge of her contributions to our world in the realm of social justice. Dolores, along with Cesar Chavez, co-founded the United Farm Workers Movement. No slight to Cesar, but that I grew up knowing about him, and not Dolores, is a good bet that misogyny played a role in overplaying one’s role and underplaying another’s. Dolores has a vibrant and compelling story of activism for worker, immigrant, and women’s rights. She remains to this day, at 90-years young, still active in human rights through the Dolores Huerta Foundation. I am grateful for her contributions and for finally learning her story; if I were a musician, I would follow in a long line of others who have written corridos in your honor. Thank you, Dolores — ¡Sí, Se Puede!
8. Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand
A woman prime minister and a country who demonstrated what lofty possibilities there are for humankind, exhibited through brave and empathetic leadership and the courageous collective action of a country on public health issues ranging from gun violence to containment of Covid-19. Jacinda and her fellow Kiwis join the small country’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, as an example to all of what can be accomplished through unity and fortitude. People around the world look up to you — thank you.
9. Yvon Chouinard
Patagonia’s founder is, quite simply, my North Star. Into his ninth decade, he continues to lead, as always, with an internal barometer for action above mere words, zig-zagging in the most wonderful of counter-intuitive of corporate ways. Yvon operates with the measured risk of the mountain climber he is, tackling our planetary climate crisis by using business as a force for good and fashioning Patagonia and its legions of fans into a juggernaut whose business is, quite singularly, saving our home planet through organizational and personal action. Thank you.
10. Baron Karl von Drais
Say what? Say who? I’m grateful for Karl because he is the DUDE who invented the bicycle (velocipede) back in 1817. And so I pay homage to Karl and the humble bicycle and the joy and grounding it has given so many who have rediscovered its wonders during the pandemic. My own bicycle has been a savior these past nine months. Throughout the crisis, I’ve gone to work at my vacant office literally as an excuse to ride my bike there and back. Whether you’re talking road bikes or e-bikes, cargo bikes or commuter bikes, beach cruisers or mountain bikes, bicycles represent humanity’s most common of miracles; they are equal parts climate warriors, engines of health, connectors to community, and mad, mad, money-saving machines. Plus, hey — they are flat-out fun. And so I say, “thank you,” Baron Karl von Drais for conjuring up the bicycle more than 200 years ago, with shout-outs to French inventors Pierre Lallement, Pierre Michaux, and Ernest Michaux for adding pedals and improving upon it for the benefit of us all. And to the rest of you, I simply say, “Ride on!” — 2021 is bound to be better for us all, especially if you’re on a bike.
And if I may end by asking: What — or who(m) — are your saving graces this year?
