Last updated on September 18, 2021
This is the part where a public intellectual really wants to say something important and insightful, reflecting on the past year and looking ahead to the future. How can I sum up a year like 2020? What do I think lies ahead in 2021?
The former question is not entirely fruitless to consider. Words like “dumpster fire” and “nightmare” come to mind for many. But this much trauma will take more distance to reflect on. I and other historians, though, don’t think 2020 was the worst year in World or even American History. This recap from the Washington Post, republished in The Hour, summarizes the following feedback from a separate company surveying Historians for their perspective. The author writes:
“The worst year in world history wasn’t even a close contest.
It was 1348, the height of the Black Death, during which as many as 200 million people died. That would be like wiping out about 65% of the U.S. population. The Holocaust in 1944 ranked second, followed by 1816, when a volcano eruption in Indonesia blocked out the sun, starving millions. 2020 ranked sixth.
In U.S. history, 2020 was well down the list at No. 8, just behind the 2001 terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the tumult of 1968’s riots and assassinations, the 1918 flu pandemic, the Trail of Tears of 1838, the 1929 stock market crash marking the beginning of the Great Depression, and at the very, very top, 1862” among the darkest days of the Civil War.
I’m inclined to agree with this from a historical perspective. The pain of the 1340s is unimaginable to me. Today, it’s entirely possible that you don’t know anyone personally who has died of COVID (unfortunately, I know some, though not many). In 1348, if you’re still alive, you barely know anyone who has made it. It had to feel like the end of the world. The Black Death wiped entire cities and populations off the face of the earth.
And while the divides in the United States today run deep, we’re not at war, like 1862, when it seemed like nothing could bring the country back together. And while I do think a second Civil War is, sadly, in our future, we’re not there yet. And we can still find peaceful ways to avoid it.
2020 has been awful across the world, but modern Westerners fail to realize that the relative peace and prosperity of the last few decades is not the norm. It has been worse and it can get worse, but we still have much to be grateful for.
History is little consolation, though, to those who have lost loved ones this year. Some people have buried entire generations of their family. They often died alone and with breathtaking speed. Those left behind didn’t have a chance to say goodbye. Many have lost jobs and millions have lost sports seasons, opportunities, and more. Indeed, some might as well have been through a 1348 of their own; especially those who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, such as the urban poor and those in nursing homes.
With so many examples of horrible years in history, though, it’s striking that we seem to have learned little in the process. Yes, our scientific and economic knowledge has advanced astronomically, and these moments can produce some of the greatest innovations, novels, plays, music, and works of art.
But we still face these crises with such a lack of imagination and maturity. We still think we can somehow overcome nature and we look to fleeting, temporal things to save us from ourselves. We look to science, politics, elections, violence, and crime to control the uncontrollable. We try and escape with alcohol, a kind of “therapeutic rage,” or to any number of superficial salves to just hang in there.
To be sure, there are exceptions. John Krasinksi’s Some Good News highlighted examples of generosity and sacrifice around the world that show the extraordinary grace of God manifested in all kinds of people across the globe.
But for the most part we whined, complained, despaired, escaped, and curled up in a proverbial ball hoping it all would go away. Or, we found ways to blame everyone or anyone else. I confess, I was no exception to this. Sometimes “throwing stones,” and whining is, frankly, easier. We feel like there’s nothing we can do, so we blame someone or criticize. It makes us feel like we’re taking responsibility while avoiding any actual personal responsibility. The same is true with the constant “virtue signaling,” on social media and elsewhere. It’s a way of saying, “See how much I care! See! I feel the way I’m supposed to feel!” The great literary conservative, Irving Babbitt, once called this “sentimental humanitarianism,” but you could easily extend the idea to other things: sentimental virtue, sentimental solidarity, sentimental justice, sentimental environmentalism, sentimental toleration – in all these instances we substitute genuine moral effort for feeling.
We need to do better in 2021. We need to avoid the tendency for our circumstances and all the constant bad news to paralyze us.
There are a lot of practical ways to do this, but I’ll suggest a few general applications.
First, as Christians, we need to deliberately order our lives so that Christ is at the center of all of it. This is partly why I’ve been preoccupied writing on the Church calendar, for example. Find ways to set aside time on a daily basis for prayer, reading Scripture, and activities like journaling and serving others. Make it all about Jesus and His Kingdom, and not about you.
Second, and in a similar vein, part of ordering our lives with Christ at the center comes by putting others’ needs before ours. It’s so easy to constantly dwell on our own problems and limitations. But when we give priority to what others need, it can make a huge difference both in our lives and especially in the lives of others. There is no shortage of opportunities given the extraordinary amount of pain and suffering around us.
Third, make a choice to practice gratitude. My great-grandma, Ortha, who passed away just short of her 100th birthday was – and is – a major influence on me. In the last decade of her life or so, when someone simply asked, “How are you?” She would reply, “I’m grateful.” And she meant it in a way that always stuck with anyone who encountered her. I’ve long aspired to practice this simple act, but have consistently failed. But the practice of gratitude – even when you feel far from grateful – can genuinely transform your life. In the very brief moments that I have been able to sustain such gratitude, it was astonishing how much it helped me spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, relationally, and even physically. Gratitude is an act of faith and worship to the God who provides you daily with more than enough to be grateful for. Just be prepared for spiritual battle when you choose to be grateful. The devil and our sinful nature deeply resents and resists gratitude.
Yes, this all sounds cliché, but I’m convinced that the way forward in 1349, 1863, and 2021 was and is by following Jesus in the way we live our lives. It’s not by what we say on social media, how we vote, or how many arguments we win. The truth of the Gospel and Christ’s redeeming sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection has not and will NOT change in the new year. It is eternally true. Jesus is the light no darkness can touch. He has defeated the death that inundates our newsfeeds. He is the only solid rock on which we can stand. He is our only hope.
Join me, now, in praying the following collect from the Book of Common Prayer (2019)
Happy New Year!