2020

This marks the start of a new decade. A century ago the 20s was a roaring decade only to end in a great depression globally. Lets hope this 2020s will be lived more sensibly, esp. as a bunch of folks born near the beginning of the new millennium comes of age, for they are our future. In fact, they are very soon going to become the present, in terms of being part of the humanity that has learnt enough to now contribute to society.

For my part, I have worked for nearly 3 decades and while I would like to think I have done my part, and even made a difference, esp in the last 3 years leading the practice to help governments globally, I am not sure that as a generation, we have covered ourselves in glory. Yes, there wasn’t a global military war in that period, so peace reigned but other wars were waged: on the working class, on the environment and even on race and religion that the world we are now bringing into 2020 is one that is more divided than in the past half century.

Who is responsible for this? Well, no one specifically. We all worked within the system that prevailed and in our case a free market capitalist system, largely led by the democratically elected national/global leaders. And in the words of Pope Francis, “if no one is responsible, then we are all resposible”.

J asked the family as we chatted the night before he returned to the US, for our new year resolutions. I thought about it for a moment and realised that I have not made up any for awhile now. The way it happened is simple: my life, unlike one of a student's, is no longer regulated by the year but rather by a tenure, a tenure of appointment to be precise. I am midway through my 6 year term and hence see this period as one contiguous block of time with a clear expression of what success looks like in 6 years time' but not less, because near term milestones are less meaningful when one can course correct until the eventual goal.

Speaking of goal, we had a family new year's dinner and as often happens, we would land on an interesting (often big) topic of conversation for the table. Yesterday was no different. I had put forth the proposition that people with small issues should set out to solve bigger problems. That way, their issues would become smaller (and hence less important and more surmountable) in context and they may even deliver great value when solving the larger problems. Then again, even this bigger problems do not need to be fully resolved. We just need to have a purpose and yes, it'd be good to have made some progress along the way.

The greater problems for me now are two-fold. At the world scale, it is to move us all positively forward on issues of inequality. At the homefront, it is about being there to support my family as they forge their way ahead in this world.

Photo Credit: D who snapped this 

during our 2-hr patience testing

 stand-still jam at the 2nd Link

That, and yes: to lose my belly fat and manage my stress.

Resolutions.