What a year. 2020 has been so difficult that it’s hard to find anything nice to say about it.

Has it taught us, as a society, how to deal with true hardship? Maybe, but plenty of us already knew.

Has it made us count our blessings? Forced us to appreciate what we have? Helped us see ourselves in a historical context—subject to plagues, just like every other human society that’s ever been?

Perhaps we can say this for 2020: it’s helped us realize the depths of our own resilience, and that, in the final analysis, people will help each other simply because it’s the right thing to do.

Here’s to a better 2021!