Monday Morning Mumbling returns! For years I did one of these nearly every week, or at least every few weeks. But yet another terrible casualty of 2020 has been the loss of my light-hearted, upbeat Monday posts (though the last one I did was not particularly lighthearted, it does merit a revisit every once in a while). And what I have discovered is that these were a great benefit to me personally; I have definitely lost a step here or there because I didn’t start the day off right. So just as the pandemic will hopefully end soon, that ends today.
I used to say every week that one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day. Here’s the quote:
“Helping other did wonders for volunteer’s self-esteem. Why, if women showed such dedication and courage in this crisis, they could do anything – even vote in elections! Opponents argued that “the ladies” should not have the right to vote because they were too unstable, too emotional, too “fragile” to make important decisions without male guidance. Women’s activities during the pandemic helped change minds. Thus, it was no accident that, in August 1920, most states approved the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women to right to vote.”
— Albert Marrin , Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
As you no doubt know, the pandemic we are currently experiencing is not the first of its kind in the world – the so-called “Spanish flu” ravaged the world in 1918. (And as you hopefully know, that pandemic was exacerbated by stupid people falsely equating “personal freedoms” with “not taking basic safety precautions to protect their fellow human beings and reduce the spread of a deadly virus.” Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.)
Now, this quote is pretty cool. Because what it says is that despite the massive loss of life that occurred during that pandemic, we also fundamentally changed the way we looked at fully half of our population forever, and in a long overdue way. “Oh wow, apparently women can be useful” is not the takeaway we associate with the 1918 influenza pandemic, but the fact that it was a net result is one of those facts that really ought to be highlighted in history books. Surrounded by death and fear, while a World War raged on, society had to rely on the “fragile” ladies to take a larger role – and found out just how fragile they actually were – or were not!
It has been a very difficult year for many people in any number of ways. The time lost, the opportunities not seized, the friendships and relationships never built or not sustained, obviously the reduction in blog post inspiration from this very site, and the sheer mental and emotional anguish put on so many by this pandemic have all been massively negative consequences.
But as we look toward this daunting winter, with hope for the spring and the possibility of health and relief beyond, perhaps it will benefit us to look for that unintended benefit to all of this. The result that will spin out from 2020 as something that makes the world a better place, just as the hastening of women’s right to vote did after the 1918 pandemic.
Unintended benefits can be all around us; sometimes we just have to choose to see them.
The creation of “no-man’s lands” at the fronts of wars, such as between Eastern and Western Europe, and in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, has led to large natural habitats. Sunken battleships in shallow waters have helped create artificial coral reefs, which replace coral reefs lost to global warming and other factors. Medicines often have side effects associated with them. We tend to think of these as negative, but some are beneficial. Aspirin, for example, is used for pain relief, but it also helps prevent heart attacks and reduce the harm caused by thrombotic strokes.
For my part, the year 2020 has changed me in a few positive ways, but probably the most beneficial has been a deepened relationship with clients boards. A fellow community association attorney mentioned this as well recently in a discussion I was a part of: before the pandemic, there was certainly a greater sense of “keep this from the attorney until we absolutely have to send it to them.” But that flies in the face of the concept we are trying to build, which is the idea of good governance. Instead, communities during this time have accepted the reality that there are legal consequences to their actions, and they have embraced that assistance and utilized their resources. Without intending to, they have probably made their efforts more streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective. In a time of increasing remoteness and distancing, communities are finding ways to be more connected.
Is it the ending of centuries of disenfranchisement of an entire gender? No. But it is certainly an unintended benefit nonetheless.
Feel free to share your unintended benefit in the comments below to help get your week started on that positive foot.
And have a great (and turkey-filled) week everybody.