Facing Loss and Embracing the Future

These past few years have brought so much loss — not only of lives, but also of the sense of security many of us had.

From 1900–2020, there was a steady increase in equity, improvements in healthcare, a reduction in crime, and none of this was won without great sacrifice.

By 2010, a larger number of people had access to the basics of life than ever had before. Despite folks saying their money buys less today than 50 years ago, the reality is, far more people had air conditioned homes, access to clean water, and a short drive or walk to acquire food.

While unfair conditions and war still occurred, these were often in ever smaller pockets of the world and so if we are all honest… many of us felt…safe.

2020 flipped a lot of this around.

The pandemic disrupted the usual flow of things. Governments had to make rapid decisions for matters that we had not experienced as a species since the flu epidemic of the early 1900s.

This has been 3 years of questioning or re-assessing, 3 years of grief, 3 years of instability that has led to increases in crime and more.

As 2022 entered the final 2 months, I lost a childhood friend to a tragic accident, another friend to unexplained causes, and another important figure to New…