Without suspense, the Year of Pandemic will follow us into 2021. We certainly have spent an unforgettable year in our lifetime in the lens of social distancing and lockdowns. If we still have faith in the future, we should celebrate for being one-step closer to understand hardship and cherish what we have in this lifetime. The continuation of life is what sustainability is about—this is only the end of the beginning. We need to continue our great efforts to do what we are good at in the coming new year. We need to listen, learn and create solutions for the Year of Healing.
As we are welcoming the new year, I’ve compiled a few odds and ends from my story folder to share with you. You might have seen this famous optical illusion that first appeared on an 1888 German postcard and was later adapted by British cartoonist William Ely Hill, who published it in a humor magazine in 1915 with the title “My Wife and My Mother-in-Law.” Do you see a young woman or an old woman?
A survey finds that we process faces from ages similar to our own more thoroughly and holistically than those of other ages. In other words, if we perceive ourselves as an aged person, we are more prone to see an old lady in the picture.
In the Year of Pandemic we cannot ignore masks that have become our everyday accessories. Mask making is a new business for fashion designers and ingenious inventors. Have you seen Santas putting on red velvet masks and greeting children in a social distance grotto? Or, have you seen Croatian brides wearing bridal masks in their wedding gowns? Life goes on but with a bit creativity in response to a global public health crisis, we might feel the softness of our heart and the hardness of our will.
In the Year of Pandemic the 2020 Ig Nobel Prize may add joy to our pandemic-fatigue life. Since 1991, the satiric prize has celebrated ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. This year’s Ig Peace Prize is awarded to India and Pakistan for having their diplomats surreptitiously ring each other’s doorbells in the middle of the night, and then run away before anyone had a chance to answer the door. Scientists are no different from any ordinary man who knows little about science. Scientists are rigorous in their fields of study but they could be communicative and playful. In my year of magical thinking, I’ve come across scientists who are good at playing music instruments or are outdoor sportsmen. In contrast, my scope of interests is strictly in liberal arts.
Albert Einstein quipped: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch and do nothing.” This can’t be a more timely statement in the context of the Year of Pandemic. Americans often lament on what one man can do in the White House. But the people around this unpopular WH occupant do nothing; if they do, they have boosted his ego and ambition of destruction. In the Anthropocene, the age of man, if we do nothing to slow down the pace of climate change, the adverse effects will spiral at an uncontrollable speed. Earlier this year, I learned that global warming is thawing permafrost under the Earth’s surface, resulting in the blowout and explosion that causes the craters in Siberia. Methane gas that used to be stored underground is now released from the melting permafrost, contributing to the greenhouse effect in the Earth’s atmosphere. Can we really do nothing?
Can we redeem ourselves by doing more for our future? If my generation is the future of my predecessor’s generation, that is, the Baby Boomers, I want to say in 2020 we are still cleaning up leftover Vietnam-era bombs in the Southeast Asian countries. It is estimated as many as four to six million mines and other pieces of unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. Laos is the most heavily bombed country in history. As a result, almost half of its suitable farmland is totally unusable. A group of Cambodians is using Gambian giant rats to find the nearly two million landmines across the country. What’s more, a landmine detection rat named Magawa became the first rat to receive a PDSA medal that honors bravery and devotion to duty of animals. At Helsinki airport, sniffer dogs have begun work to detect covid through their sharp sense of smell. Scientists found that dogs were able to identify diseases such as cancer and diabetes, and the coronavirus with nearly 100% accuracy. Do animals do more for us than we can do for them?
In the Year of Pandemic we are restricted from traveling afar. But we can appreciate our beautiful world if we open the window of our heart. If you’re looking for ecotourism, South Korea stands out in 2020 with a giant crane across a vast sprawl of paddy fields in Suncheon, 198 miles south of Seoul. The giant rice crane urged the country to “cheer up!” in the face of COVID-19.
And Dongpirang Mural Village in Tongyeong-si, South Korea brought vibrant street art alive. Of course, if we can travel in 2021, we do not want to get on this plane, do we?
No matter what will happen in 2021, it is up to you to make your life sweet and memorable against all odds. Happy New Year!!!