If 2020 was a villain

When we’ll think about the year 2020 in years to come, it will almost certainly be easiest to remember it for one thing only, COVID-19, and all the devastation it has caused.

But when it comes right to it, is that all we should remember? Were there not some things that happened that could carry a positive label, if only on some level?

If we were to consider working from home in isolation (not the nature of the work, but the concept itself), a lot of us have pivoted in the ways we do things now and have gained skills we wouldn’t have otherwise gained; companies have realised the benefits and viability of remote working on a major scale; dressing for one’s day, that may involve casuals only, has become the norm; and we actually have the time to do what we enjoy such as write, bake, exercise, and [fill in the blank here].

Something about 2020, the ‘villain year’ of our lifetime, reminds me of the challenges writers face when creating villains in fiction too. You see, wiriters may start off revealing only the characteristics which make us dislike those characters, the unredeemable qualities we like to hate. But what fun would it be, if those characters aren’t eventually humanised in some way, as we learn about the backstories which made them who they are. And even if we tend not to agree with their current actions, we may just gain a level of understanding that if revealed effectively, results in us identifying with those characters in some minor way.

I can only hope that when we look back on the year 2020, that we’ll recall some redeeming qualities of connectedness in an unlikely ‘virtual’ reality of sorts, charity in general, and the undeniable human spirit in times of adversity, such as 2020, which in some ways brought us all closer together.