One of the finest opening paragraphs of any novel, as you may already know, was written in 1859 by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”
Although Dickens was writing about the societal mood at the time of the French Revolution and similar unease in Britain, his words easily describe our current state of affairs. And, at least for me, they are a much-needed reminder that things are never all bad, particularly after this past year, which has now culminated in such upheaval in Iran.
At the time of this writing, we are all still holding our collective breath for the brave protestors, waiting to see where their efforts will lead. With every death and every arrest, our hearts deflate with the ache of it, only to swell up again upon seeing an image of a mandated headscarf being burned or hearing a song of defiance or marching in solidarity for freedom. Our emotions are tangled in knots of anger, sadness, and frustration, but also pride, hope, and excitement for a better tomorrow.
While the events in Iran have been foremost in our hearts and minds, 2022 also brought us a string of other dizzying news. Among other things, Russia invaded Ukraine, Roe v. Wade was overturned, there was another heartbreaking mass shooting at an elementary school (this time in Uvalde, Texas), Shinzo Abe was assassinated, the Queen of England died, there was an outbreak of Monkeypox, Omicron became the new normal, and Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on live T.V.
With the media’s penchant for focusing on death and disaster, you may be excused for missing the good things that happened too. I’m going to list some, in no particular order of importance, just a flood of light in the darkness. Maya Angelou became the first Black woman to be featured on the U.S. quarter. Rishi Sunak became the first person of color to hold the office of British Prime Minister. For the first time ever, a men’s world cup game had an all-woman referee team. Scientists explained for the first time how the Milky Way began. A vaccine for HIV/AIDS—inconceivable for those of us who witnessed the ravages of what was initially a “mystery virus” in the 1980s—is closer to hand as Moderna began giving the first doses to trial patients. Here in California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of legislation to cut pollution, protect Californians from big polluters, and accelerate the state’s transition to clean energy. On a national scale, Congress issued the most aggressive climate investment legislation to date—the “Inflation Reduction Act”—which invests hundreds of billions of dollars to combat climate change and advance clean energy programs. Rich countries were hoarding and stockpiling the COVID-19 vaccine, but finally poorer countries began receiving their share of the vaccine through a program called COVAX, backed by the United Nations.
Particularly heartwarming was a relatively small, but significant, story of redemption, the return of hundreds of acres of redwood forestland in California’s Mendocino County to a coalition of Native tribes—InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council—that were displaced from the land generations ago by European American settlers. The tribes, intent on environmental and cultural preservation of the land, have renamed the area “Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ,” which means “fish run place.” As a member of the tribal council put it, renaming the property “lets people know that it’s a sacred place; it’s a place for our Native people. It lets them know that there was a language and that there was a people who lived there long before now.”
I have purposely listed more of the good news than the bad because it is so often overlooked. Rest assured that, whatever this next year brings, there will be progress, hope, and love in the mix. Happy new year!
