If there was ever a time to dredge up an old worn out idiom and splash some fresh paint over it the time is now. Hindsight is always 2020.
You've heard that one, right? It means things are clearer when viewed in the past. It's easier to see what happened after the fact than what might happen tomorrow or even what is happening right now.
20/20 was considered good vision before things like laser eye surgery. Today advances in science have made 20/10 vision commonplace. Like the year, 20/20 ain't so great anymore.
Not that the year was ever good, much less great.
This has been the worst year of many people's lives. The global pandemic and economic fallout have permanently altered the existence of hundreds of millions world wide.
If ever a year needed to seen in the rearview, it is this one. Unfortunately, the changing of the date will not rid us of the year. We'll be eating the leftovers of this year for another six months or more.
But hindsight is always 2020 means we have just survived a year that should always be looked back upon. Not for the terrible things that happened or the very few good things, but for the lessons all of these things should teach us.
First, reality tv can never stand up to reality. Global disasters cannot be scripted away. The way things are will always stomp all over your or my wishful thinking.
Nevertheless, many Americans will stick their heads in the sand, make up a conspiracy, or claim divine intervention instead of face reality no matter what. No problem will ever be solved on their watch.
Second, we can overcome disasters with logic and reason. Science and knowledge have taken us to great heights and will continue if superstition and ignorance don't get in the way.
Unfortunately, superstition and ignorance are evil's greatest weapons and our country has massive stockpiles of both. Education is the only deterrent.
Third, Americans are a diverse amalgamation of individuals. No matter how much some forces want us to be cookie cutter copies of one another, our country's strength has always been and will always be in its diversity.
Extremism abhors diversity. Bigotry and xenophobia are the remnants. The evolutionary process will leave those defects behind and that's the way God planned it.
There are many other lessons to be learned from 2020, but I think these three will guide us best as we look ahead. I accept some will look at them and shrug.
We are a strange lot of humans in America. We claim we want to be left alone but gather up in bunches to tell someone else what not to do. We claim to be for the underdog but give everything we have to the overlord. We want open doors for ourselves but walls for everyone else.
The strangest thing about us and this year is about 70% of Americans would say the presidential election was the best thing that happened without question and 30% would say the presidential election was the worst thing that happened without question.
And that, my friends, is why hindsight will always be 2020. Happy New Year!