In 2020 We All Learned to Dance
It has been said a million times this year, but 2020 has been an interesting year to say the least. As we usher out 2020 today and welcome 2021 with open arms it reminds me of the legendary Garth Brooks song The Dance:
“Looking back on the memory of… the time we shared ‘neath the stars above.
For a moment all the world was right, How could I have known that you’d ever say good bye.
And now, I’m glad I didn’t know. The way it all would end, the way it all would go.
Our lives, are better left to chance I could have missed the pain, but I’d have had to miss the dance.”
These lyrics resonate as I reflect on 2020 as a year in which we all needed to learn a new dance. As awkward as middle school students at their first school dance we crowded around the peripheral expanse of the metaphorical gym floor of Covid-19, looking around trying to see how we best learn how to move to this new song. Just as in those formative school dances we first found ourselves huddled with the few in the room that we were familiar with, tapping our feet to get the rhythm of what worked best. Then we began to have to cross the divide and gasp! talk with others that we may not have conversated with previously. Soon we found ourselves, all under the same stars, at properly socially distanced intervals figuring out the footwork and learning how to collectively move to the new music. By the end of the 2020 we now find that the circumstances of this dance caused pain, but has also allowed us to forge new partnerships across a vast variety of community partners.
Although today marks the end of 2020 it does not mark the end of this dance. The year 2020 has brought us pain in the form of losing family, friends, and seeing community businesses close doors. However, we have also witnessed the unparalleled synergy of our community working together. We have forged new dance partners and have learned new steps that have better prepared us all as we move into 2021. We have had the opportunity to partner with so many city officials, business owners, property managers, and homeowners throughout this year and move through the expanse of Covid-19 in tandem. We look forward to the day that this particular dance ends but we are grateful for each of the partners that the dance of 2020 brought us.
As we usher in 2021 we can still hear the music playing of Covid-19, and we are still here with our dancing shoes on. If you, or anyone you know, needs a dance partner for Covid-19 disinfection we at Bio-One of Tucson (520) 771-5960 stand ready to navigate the steps with you.
