If you´re reading this, you´re probably lacking neither home nor food daily. Very often, I have to remind myself not to feel the grief when I have everything I need to lead an ordinary fulfilled life. However, not only the last year was challenging. Most of us are lucky enough not to be majorly affected by the coronavirus directly, but it´s rather its impacts on the daily lives…and how it shows the flaws in the company settings.
I usually have a mind of an optimist and I´m realizing how grateful for that I should be. Seeing good things rather than bad is not an unwanted attribute. Yet does it mean that I also see good things in things that are generally bad? People from my country are known for being skeptical and complainers. Sometimes we have a valid reason, other times it´s probably just the pretext rising from our imperfections. Noone can´t be either a hundred percent optimist or a pessimist. Everyone has a certain predisposition, but in my opinion, it´s eventually our determination that decides whether we stagnate or move forward.
A lot of unpleasant things have happened recently. However, I don´t like to say that only last year was the cruel one. But one thing I have to admit.
2020 was the year when a lot bubbling out of people's sight for ages was brought to light. It brought lost awareness to certain social spheres. People that were or still are struggling because of pandemic restrictions realized how well they had been doing before. I personally managed to appreciate some desirable aspects of this unprecedented situation and I still find that there is a considerable amount of things that could´ve gone worse if it wasn´t for the (temporary) transformation of the world.
Oftentimes, we wake up and get confronted by tons of news informing us about recent actions all over the world. Media are a useful everyday life tool but they can be risky. They brilliantly estimate what could be the most interesting for a certain group of citizens in a particular area or of a definite age. This system usually generates the most actual and impulsive information that secures a fast reading rate rather than pointing out the long-lasting problems. I don't want to deny that it can be sometimes enriching, but some absurdities I read in our most influential media make me laugh desperately.
“Melania Trump Gets Bumped By Baby Elephant”
That is an example of what can get on the front page of an online news service. The elephant barely touched her and the whole world has to know about it when we´re in the middle of an ecological crisis and Africa has certainly more significant problems than one small elephant in a most likely well financially secured Sanctuary playfully bumping in the first lady of a controversial American presidency.
Word of the year 2019, according to Oxford Dictionaries, was climate emergency. Do you all remember? This awareness was brought to the highest ranks mostly thanks to Great Thunberg and Fridays For Future. People were alarming, governments were promising radical changes to stop global warming, and therefore the potential catastrophe. The world finally seemed like it´s changing for the better. And now? It looks like the general awareness concerning climate change´s disappeared. Coronavirus is hitting now and that “obviously” outweighs the upcoming ecological disaster.
The problems that are making us feel helpless are innumerable. Ranging from inhumane and undemocratic political controls and influence over environmental grief to mental health struggles, we often have solid reasons why to feel that things are not right. But at the end of the day, will our complaints and frustration change anything? No, but we all can, both individually and together. It may not catch the eye of the international media, but it makes us feel auspicious. Maybe we´ll then wake up to a better, more tolerant world tomorrow.
