2020 - A whirlwind year (so far)

"Many of us will make the most of this summer of 2020. No, it will not be normal, but we will try to squeeze as much normalcy as possible out of the next three months. We will go into fall with caution and trepidation. As we get closer to New Year's Day of 2021, the cold realization will set in. Our world changed in 2020. It will never be the same."

We hosted my sister-in-law's 60th birthday party yesterday. Made me feel kind of old. When I first started dating my wife, her sister was much younger, and basically a kid. Now she is 60 and looking forward to retirement. Wow. After the party was over and everyone left, I started thinking about all which has happened this year. Never seen a year like it. So, I decided to make a timeline of things which many of us in Minnesota have gone through this year.

Timeline:

• January 1, 2020 - Gophers beat Auburn in the Outback Bowl. Unbelievable!
• January 5, 2020 - Vikings beat the Saints to advance in the playoffs. Life is good.
• January 11, 2020 - Vikings lose to San Francisco and are eliminated. Boo hiss.
• January 13, 2020 - LSU beats Clemson for the national championship. Great game! 

NOTE: Now the fun part of the year is over.

• January 16, 2020 - Senate impeachment trial begins. 
• January 20, 2020 - First confirmed case of COVID - 19 in the US. It was in Seattle.
• February 5, 2020 - Impeachment trial over, with the President acquitted.
• March 1, 2020 - First confirmed cases of COVID - 19 in New York and Minnesota.
• March 6, 2020 - My wife and I return from Florida, me with pneumonia, she with bronchitis. 
• March 20, 2020 - Stores in Minnesota start to look empty as the supply chain breaks.
• March 27, 2020 - Minnesota receives its first "stay at home" order from the governor.
• April 1, 2020 - Economy starts to tank, and unemployment starts to climb.
• May 8, 2020 - Unemployment is the highest since the Great Depression.
• May 25, 2020 - George Floyd is killed by a cop in Minneapolis.
• May 26, 2020 - A week of rioting starts across the nation.
• May 30, 2020 - First Space X launch with humans on board. Mission to ISS.  

I have quoted this man before. Alvin Toffler wrote a book called Future Shock back in the 1970's. Things will happen too fast, too many choices, too much going on, too much, too much. None of this (according to Toffler), will be good for folks in the future (that is us). As crazy as the tail end of the decade of the 2010's were, that was NOTHING compared to how 2020 has started out. To quote a good friend of mine, "This is nuts man - totally nuts!"

The question which begs to be asked is this - where do we go from here? We are in summer (June) right now, and how school will be handled this fall is still a mystery to most of us. The economy is started to sputter back to life, and the recent jobs report was surprisingly good. That being said, way too many people are still out of work. Those who have been working from home, might be doing so for years to come. Some jobs will never come back.

I do know this. The next seven months in 2020 will be time of great change. How we care for our elderly in long term care facilities will change. No more killing fields for COVID. How we do school will change. At home learning will become more in vogue, and time off for snow days are soon to be a thing of the past. Work will change. New employment opportunities will start to appear, as some of the older jobs will disappear. Large urban cities will continue to boil and churn. When Minneapolis burned last month, so did Thrive 2040. Sorry, Met Council. 

Many of us will make the most of this summer of 2020. No, it will not be normal, but we will try to squeeze out as much normalcy as possible during the next three months. We will go into fall with caution and trepidation. As we get closer to New Year's Day of 2021, the cold realization will set in. Our world changed in 2020. It will never be the same. Change will become the norm, not the exception. Hang on and buckle up. This ride is far from over.