For many of us, our recent transition to a new year was filled with a complicated mix of relief, sorrow, gratitude, and hopefulness about what lies ahead. For that we can thank COVID-19. Underneath it all, don’t all of us yearn to be hopeful? The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…” May it be so, as we hear from Daniel Marwil.
Dr. Daniel Marwil is a pediatrician in Providence, Rhode Island and president of the board of directors of The Gamm Theatre.
My brother emailed a New Year’s wish to me and my siblings that said, “May 2021 be a mirror image of 2020.” At first, that struck me as a bit odd, because I didn’t want 2021 to be anything like 2020. He must have realized that himself; shortly afterward he sent a clarifying email stating mirror image means opposite.
But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the perfect New Year’s wish. When you look in the mirror, you don’t see the opposite of yourself, whatever that might be. Rather, you see yourself in reverse. So, I thought, if 2021 could be 2020 in reverse, that would be ideal.
In 2020 we started the year off living our typical everyday lives, but since March, we have been living very restricted, often isolated lives, surrounded by intense political turmoil and social injustices. What a wonderful gift it would be to have all that reversed in 2021. In 2020, far too many people died from an inadequate national response to COVID-19. In 2021, as a new administration takes hold, many people’s lives will hopefully be saved because of the hard work and ingenuity of brilliant scientists who have brought us multiple vaccines in record time. In 2020 many businesses struggled, some failed, and many jobs were lost. In 2021, if businesses can start to thrive again, some new ones will open and jobs will return. In 2020, many theaters went dark and arenas were empty. In 2021, I hope theater lights will again burn bright and arenas will fill up with fans – synagogues, churches and mosques will fill up with congregants – restaurants and bars will fill up with patrons – classrooms will fill up with students – airplanes, trains and buses will fill up with travelers – homes will fill up with friends and family. We know it can’t happen instantaneously, nor quickly even, but, gradually, things can start to reverse themselves.
When we look in the mirror, not everything that faces us is reversed. Our center, our core, our soul – these things are unchanged in our mirror image. So, too, with 2020; though it was an extremely difficult year, at its center, at its core there was still a lot of good. Frontline health care and other essential workers around the world gave new meaning to the word sacrifice. We gained new appreciation for the support that family and friends provide. Members and supporters of the theater and arts worlds rallied to support each other as their lives and livelihoods were suddenly upended. Courageous people have stood up to abuses of power and brought national attention to disturbing racial injustices and inequities. These are things that need no reversal. These are things to celebrate, to be grateful for, and to bring with us into 2021.
So even though at first my brother’s New Year’s wish seemed odd, I now realize how prescient a wish it might be. Let us hope that the extremes of 2020 can be reversed in 2021, but that our center, our soul remains unchanged.
