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Reflecting on a remarkable 2020

What. A. Year.

After the last fireworks blasts had ushered in the new, promising year - 2020, a new decade - and the most impressive ornamental flares had colored the pitch-black sky as if God descended for a masterclass sky painting, it became dead silent. The noisy New Year's greetings, the kisses, the hugs, the music and the singing moved from the street into houses, cafes and clubs and as the morning tightened its grip on the night, the street landscape became completely quiet and became one with the sleeping crowd, until, if you listened very carefully, some of the birds in the timid dawn broke the lingering silence and made themselves softly heard. What did they actually say to each other - or was it to us? - those crazy birds? We slept off our hangover, heard nothing and dreamed about freedom and endless possibilities, and the molding of our own glorious life in a crisp new decade rolled out like a red carpet...

For some, 2020 flew by, for others it went painfully slow or came to an abrupt end.

[The year started so well for many people, for example for that healthy man in his late forties, an Argentinian, CEO in Northern Argentina. After an intensive (working) year for his wife and him, they decided in February to take their 2 young teenage children on a beautiful journey through Europe. A well-deserved holiday, during which they enjoyed what Spain and Italy, among others, had to offer. Their most precious holiday yet. After returning to Argentina, he and his wife fell ill. They turned out to have Covid-19. She recovered, he died. The family lost their father and partner, and from the end of March 2020, life would never be the same for them.]

Economically things had not gone so well in many years. 2019 was the year of record numbers, growth in prosperity, jobs and various sectors expected 2020 to set new, positive, records in the books. It all went well. However, with the blindfolds of perpetual optimism on, we turned out to be heading for a global disaster of unprecedented magnitude. We were going to experience something that no person alive today had ever consciously experienced before, certainly not during peacetime.

No, it did not mean the Chronicle of the Brexit Foretold. On January 31, the United Kingdom (UK) formally left the EU after years of fussing, and entered a transition period, with relatively little time to negotiate the agreement appropriate to the new relationship between the EU and the UK. In the course of the year, the Alleingang of the United Kingdom turned out to be supported by fewer and fewer UK people – currently less than 40%. Waking up sober after the "victory party" of the fiercely battled Brexit. Ultimately, as it turned out during the negotiations, we will have to deal with it together, the Island and the Continent. Truly at the last possible moment, there was a Brexit deal, with unfortunately only losers, although Prime Minister Johnson's narrative, for well-known political and personal reasons, of course claimed a resounding victory for his country. As if a new period of a Grand British Empire was dawning upon the world.

There was little cause for joy for Australia from the start of the year when the bush fires were found to be uncontrollable and continued to spread, causing approximately 186,000 km2 of land to burn in the first quarter of annus horribilis 2020. An area the size of all of Cuba. All New Year's hopes melted away in a scorching heat.

Early in the year, tension grew between America and Iran due to the attack by the Americans on the important Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

Trump wasn't into waging war on a large scale, but an attack here and there was possible. Iran vowed revenge, and the question is when this attack will be retaliated in full. A prelude?

Around February, it was first reported extensively in the global media that a strange virus had broken out in a distant country, China, you know, 'where they live together with many millions in big cities and they still have markets where you buy exotic animals for consumption'.

A virus transmitted by wild bats, sold for consumption. In Wuhan, "never heard of". Ah, that is far away, it will not affect us. We are safe. Hence the public opinion. Hence the view of most Governments. And scientists. So much unanimity across the board, that had to work out well. The name of the virus: Covid-19, in laymen’s terms: Corona. And the rest is history.

As soon as it became apparent that the virus was spreading rapidly across the world, and had probably been around for longer than previously determined, an international alarm was raised. A global pandemic was a fact. In March, the stock markets crashed, unsure of how this all would play out and then, with ever-faster steps from governments, not knowing what to do with it really, drastic measures were taken with a devastating impact on the travel industry, global tourism, the hospitality industry, the art world and so on. Much of what life offers you (besides the hard work, the enjoying life to the fullest in the scarce free time) had disappeared. Entering the first lockdown, a new universal concept, it soon became apparent that toilet paper has been one of the most important inventions in modern history and an essential necessity for homo sapiens. Thanks to these sheets of paper and our food hamster rage - an understandable symbiosis - supermarkets became the big winners in 2020 from an economic point of view.

Extraordinary. For the first time in recent human history, the entire world was in the same boat. Affluent countries and poor countries. Democratic countries and totalitarian regimes. Men, women and children. Everyone was touched and we shared an equal fear of the unknown. An external evil, invisible, unpredictable and potentially life-threatening. The world came to a standstill and in the meantime climate goals such as limiting CO2 emissions were achieved within a short time; collateral benefits. New (or existing, but unknown) terminology quickly became familiar: flatten the curve, lockdown, quarantine, and after climate deniers, Corona deniers submerged. "It's just the flu" and “I am fed up with Corona” were trending on social media for a short while and these are still leading terms and thoughts for a niche group. Conspiracy thinking experienced a revival; it was all the fault of Bill Gates, George Soros or the Chinese planned all this. It recently emerged that the strict measures in China, as opposed to the more time consuming democratic decision process in the West, resulted in a must more rapid recovery post-Covid than the rest of the world and China is bound to take over the number 1 position as economic superpower from America much sooner than anticipated. So a China set-up anyway?

While we were united in our suffering worldwide, there was a clear difference in culture, leadership style and crisis response. Varying from months of strict lockdown to a self-proclaimed smart lockdown in the Netherlands. From relatively willingly adhering to measures - especially in Asia - to criticism of freedom of movement that has been taken away in the West. From looking at what is (temporarily) no longer possible to realizing that you still allowed to do a lot in comparison to other countries. The art of putting things into perspective turned out to be a somewhat less developed quality, especially in – certain parts of - the free West.

Political and administrative leadership that, as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte put it, "must take 100% of the decisions with 50% of the knowledge". And yet we, the citizens, expected more, better, different. Now that the European Football Championship had been canceled, millions and millions of ‘national coaches’ turned overnight into virologists. Freedom, with all its achievements, turned out to be difficult to coincide with letting go of being right and 'leaving it to the experts'. And yes, they too are not without flaws. Like the rest of us...

Country leaders who addressed the nation directly in peacetime. Historical in every way. President Trump, the showman par excellence, took this to the next level, by holding a live press conference every day at one stage, in which he mainly bragged how well he handled everything in this crisis. Images loomed of Iraq's Foreign Minister during the Gulf War, who, while a major Iraq city behind him was being bombed, indicated pokerfaced that Iraq was winning the war. In addition to being the world's leading economic and military force, America is now also number 1 on the list of Covid-19 victims.

This also raised the question of whether or not diminishing the ego could be the beginning, or even the key, to more space for a more open, more diverse, successful and connected society.

One thing was abundantly clear: Covid-19 revealed the weaknesses in the system. Already existing trends were accelerated and beautiful stories of bragging (mainly) men, who first did not take Covid-19 seriously and then indicated that they would fix it in the blink of an eye, well, those countries, with the USA under Trump in the lead, turned out to be the biggest victims. But don't worry, USD and EURO trillions of new money (fiat money) were created by central banks to deal with the setbacks in the short term. The system had to be maintained, and this time it was different from, say, 2007/2008, when the banking system was weak, an internal problem. Now it was a black swan event from the outside. The result: the already low interest rates fell to 0% or to a (more) negative percentage, and for many governments receiving, instead of paying, interest for borrowing money has now become the new standard. Investors quickly realized that governments and central banks were willing to do anything to buy off the negative economic effects of the pandemic, so assets - despite millions of additional unemployed people - experienced an incredible rebound. House prices continued to go through the roof and companies, even those that already had a weak balance sheet, so called Zombie companies, were kept afloat. Many (EU) governments paid (large) companies so that they could continue to pay salaries to their staff. During the greatest human and economic crisis of our existence “many partied like there is no tomorrow”. Well, who knows, we might forget the last part of this sentence, blinded by blissful numbers of virtual wealth. Why did that Bitcoin rise to an all-time high?

And oil prices even went negative for a while (you received money when you bought oil). A similar trend, hopping on the bandwagon of negative interest rates?

Working from home became the new normal, and it turned out quite successfully. What many companies hesitated to adopt for years ("working at home, that's impossible, people are not productive") turned out to produce more labor productivity. Instead of every morning in a traffic jam or on a crowded train, after their first cup of coffee at home, or their morning-yoga, people started the new working day, and Zooming became the new meeting. There was still that little issue of children, who also had to stay at home and follow classes online for much more respect for the teachers. Wow, suppose you have 20 or 30 "wise guys" in a class...

In the year when big tech was under scrutiny in a widening number of countries because of their ever-growing power and impact on our privacy, we became, ironically, increasingly dependent on them. Without big tech, we could not keep in touch with colleagues and family. Also, these businesses, set up by ever-cooler nerds, facilitated that we can place orders, which are delivered at home, with parcel deliverers working overtime, alongside care workers, who all suddenly grew from barely noticed fellow citizens into crucial pillars of our society under pressure. It seemed as if technology companies, logistical organizations, education and healthcare had made an unspoken pact much earlier in recent years, which, without realizing it, now enabled us to operate relatively undisturbed despite a global mega-crisis and continue to live our lives more or less. Well-being in optima forma.

We were also able to express ourselves vigorously on social media - long live big tech again! – predominantly about what went wrong and that "it is all the fault of politicians". Black/white, right/wrong, that was once again the prevailing attitude.

In any case, the lesser commuting time provided extra space to fill the virtual world with our non- literary epistles. Another emerging phenomenon, in which one's own behavior was seen little or not as the root cause of contamination figures that got out of hand, just to name a few. The ‘splinter and beam’ wisdom was never more applicable than in the memorable 2020.

In addition to an ongoing development in which the (super) rich are becoming increasingly wealthy compared to the rest, Covid-19 also turned out to create a new trend: the gap between people with a permanent job and the self-employed: people with a job with the same income and much less spending costs - no outdoor dinners, no theater or pop concert, no or limited vacation - and therefore much more to spend, as opposed to many self-employed people who lost their assignments and only had limited eligibility for support. Here, too, it turned out that the employees did not always realize this, which once again revealed that people prefer to look up, at what the other has more, than ‘down’, and are therefore often less satisfied with what they do already have. Something to think about a little longer in the future.

“I can't breathe” turned out to be the most powerful words to the global black community since Marten Luther King's “I have a dream”, spoken by a black man, George Floyd, who was cruelly taken in a neck clamp by the police and eventually died. BLM, the Black Lives Matter movement, was born instantly. A direct connection to Martin Luther King, who in the 1960s gave oxygen to the oppressed feeling many non-white people have in many countries around the world. This turmoil in an until recently somewhat raked multicultural landscape led many to a clearer insight that color and descent should never lead to exclusion in any part of society. Blind spots got mirrors. The discussion about the provenance of Colonial art was intensified. And so on. But as with many movements, smaller extreme loners or other groups saw an opportunity to exert influence, for example by rioting, or to take a tough stance on this movement. But this explosion of sense of identity was an initiator of much more.

A culture of exclusion also seemed to be emerging. "How woke are you?", as the standard question of the born-again Gutmensch. In the pursuit of inclusivity, here too the pendulum of nuance seemed to overshoot, and in the meantime every deviation was rejected by certain groups and the deviant was excluded, canceled. A contradiction in terminis. Inclusivity becomes exclusive. Which can even lead to the transcendent importance of who you are and not what value you can add based on your skills. You have to be 100% perfect in everything, in line with "what we think". Something we wanted to get rid of, don’t we? In the former prevailing culture this was not appropriate, but if this is replaced by a new culture, a Cancel culture, this feeds extremity, where form is opposed to content - who are you as a person, what can you do. Labeling people leads to dehumanization, no longer listening to one another, the absolute right, where the nuance seems to have ended up on the scrap heap of a connected society. As a well-known Dutch psychiatrist warned in an interview: “A fragmented society that is no longer glued together on the basis of historical ties, but in which everyone claims their individual right”. In short, change well balanced, and keep thinking is the motto. Room for dialogue instead of monologue. A challenge for all actors in this space...

It was an extreme year, not only in terms of the pandemic, but also politically, in which polarization seemed to have gradually become the new convention.

Heated arguments and demonstrations between lovers and haters of various Latin American Presidents, induced by their – often quite loud speaking - leaders. President Trump, too, in the run-up to and during the Presidential elections, increasingly shouted online and offline. He regularly changed his position, so that his own staff no longer knew what would be the situation after another night's sleep - or tossing and turning - the next morning. And for him the saying "if you are not for me, you are against me" was applicable to an extreme degree. Quite rare for a sitting US President, he was not elected to a second term. Joe Biden can try it with a new and fresh team. Trump contested the outcome of the election regularly, while pushing trust in democratic institutions even further into the abyss. Ego above anything else. Particularly odd for a country that prides itself on spreading peace & democrazy, sorry, democracy, across the world and has entered into many wars for this purpose, including the Liberation of Europe, this year, 75 years ago.

Or do these developments show in a positive way that we are ready for a new era? A period in which the pendulum can swing back from the extreme to the center. Away from polarization, with more space and attention for the grey tones of life. Everything that you give attention to grows and flourishes, so why not spending more time at and concern for the nuance? Possibly, also something for the media to think about. Are they the supposedly neutral outsider, although they hunt at the same time for the scope, the deviating, the extreme, just to satisfy the insatiable urge for eyeballs instead of the objective hue?

But much more happened in the world. Do you remember that enormous explosion in Beirut, where it turned out that despite years of warnings, thousands of kilos of ammonium nitrate were wrongly stored in the port of Beirut, which unfortunately detonated killing about 135 people, and injuring hundreds of thousands more. A literally deadly cocktail of corruption and failing leadership.

In June, President Trump, in the news every day and feeling stronger than ever after surviving an impeachment procedure earlier that year, broke up a peaceful rally by force and then posed in front of a church with the Bible in his hand. Once again, the picture-for-the-world had to give way to the exercise of the democratic right to protest.

Almost immediately after - the very progressive - American Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died, the fight began to have a conservative judge appointed by the President. Everything, absolutely everything became more and more political in an increasingly - democratically seen - crumbling America.

Deep fake technology continued to evolve, a potentially dangerous development, vividly demonstrated by a deep fake video of an alleged speech by Queen Elizabeth of England. Old school meets new skool. Technology remains a double-edged sword.

Meanwhile, the war over disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh flared up again. After a brief, fierce battle with many more dead, young men losing their lives on the battlefield of political incapability to find a mutually satisfactory solution, a fragile peace agreement was signed. More on the basis of differences in strength than conviction. People in that area are holding their breath for the future. Again no room for nuance.

And back to the impact of Covid-19. The influence alone on former tourist hotspot Amsterdam, which was gradually growing to an intended 30 million visitors per year. On the streets during the first lockdown as you walked past the tourist highlights such as the Museumplein, the canals, the Red Light district: all was empty.

In many ways, the world had grown to extremes, in politics, in (social media) treating one another, in the ill behavior on the street - among other things, the increasing threats to aid workers who just do their job - so that it was a matter of time other extremes such as unbridled economic growth, tourism flows and congested roads and overflowing public transport also came to a standstill at once. The desolation of public life, the streets, as a reflection of the emptiness of modern society?

Thanks to the Corona induced standstill, there was also the time to reflect more on your own existence, the usefulness and necessity of what you do and recalibrate the priorities in life. Working from home brought its own dimension. The realization that there is a lot in life outsourced. You send your children to school where they not only receive education but are also raised, which makes life so much easier. But oh what if the teacher makes a mistake. Here, too, an extreme form of 'my own child first' has popped up. Where has the mildness gone? Time for each other often lacked, busy with going out for dinner, having a party, everything topped off with a little too much alcohol, and therefore avoiding the real conversation. The dormant discomfort could therefore continue undisturbed in the background.

Clapping together for the health care workers - especially during the first wave, panic wave? - which was actually a nice substitute for a party together, and then demand that these people are entitled to a bonus, and an extra salary increase, but regretting the negative impact on your increased health insurance premium. Can't we outsource this higher financial sacrifice as well? The government is spending tons of money anyway to maintain our lifestyle as much as possible, after years of propagating austerity to lower the debts. In the EURO zone supported by the European Central Bank, which - never waste a good crisis - has now facilitated even the possibility of jointly issuing European debt securities. What the Fed could and can do, we can do too, right? Well, for now we have a job, our employer is paid by the government, and the State is actually receiving interest to borrow money, so who cares about the debt explosion? The financial worries are also outsourced, to later generations. For now, the sun will continue to shine...

Meanwhile, another artist wiped his tears, and remembered with melancholy the time - it seemed so long ago - when people still had some money left for a work by him.

“Then you just have to transform to another, well paying, vocation,” urges a society that has not yet used the relative tranquility of the less rapidly spinning world to look at the value that artists add to our existence. In addition to offering a much-needed fun experience - museum, cinema, concert - for hard-working people, an artist thinks and lives differently. Who knows, maybe their power of imagination can finally be used structurally to solve the major challenges of our time in a different way. Along with the usual suspects. A cross-fertilization between imagination and ‘the practical world’, equally like the already existing touch of spirituality for the corporate actors, such as mindfulness and nature & leadership to lessons from the Dalai Lama for the contemporary manager.

Boundaries are becoming increasingly fluid anyway. Artists are used - still scarcely - to solve major social issues. Classical orchestras work with pop musicians. More and more for-profit companies are emerging from pure science, driven in particular by technological and medical developments. Gender-neutral WCs pop up in many places, and there is now (the awareness for) an abundance of hybrid genders. Is it true that grey tones emerge from the absolute segmentations, opinions and beliefs? Is it time to rebound an overstretched pendulum? Will the nuance again be stripped of a great sand layer by the swelling wind of the great inaudible but clearly present and accelerating masses and start to shine again in the nurturing sunlight of the real connection?

Perhaps something to consider in our countryside cottage, more popular than ever by the covid-19-impacted city dweller.

Responding to the Zeitgeist, the renowned Dutch Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam created a new position, the curator-at-large, appointing 2 people. These curators have a free role to "provide the museum with a diversity of ideas, with the aim of adding other perspectives to the collection, program and research". Perhaps an idea for other types of organizations and companies to appoint a committed outsider, someone with a refreshing view on the position and role of the organization in the context of a society in transformation?

Speaking of the Stedelijk Museum, even in this turbulent year - in Nam June Paik's exhibition, among other things - it turned out that his insights in the 1960s and 1970s on the achievements and drawbacks of technology and media were visionary. Looking back is literally looking forward again. Who are the visionaries of this decade?

Due to the closing of theaters, museums and similar venues, the (performing) Arts were under enormous pressure. Fortunately, more and more people, also in politics, understand that this sector has economic value in addition to intrinsic value. After all, what is a city or village without a pub, a restaurant and without culture? Cities such as Amsterdam, London or Berlin have an attractive business climate for large international companies and promising start-ups precisely because of that culture.The cross-pollination of creatives, meeting like-minded people from other parts of society brings fun, inspiration and new developments, from flourishing start-ups to international corporate headquarters. Cherish the arts therefore does not seem to be a request but a necessity.

The pressure also increased further on companies to become more involved in the public discourse. There is certainly still a lot of fear and unfamiliarity in this area. While a company as a collection of people, of citizens that is, is part of society just like those same citizens. Something to embrace more in the years to come? After all, together we are stronger.

The auction record for a work of art in 2020 was for the work Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus by Francis Bacon. Including auction costs the price tag amounted to more than USD 84 million, for a triptych based on an approximately 2500 years old Greek trilogy. This story is about the importance of the legal system, justice, over vengeance and blood-feud, and about the struggle between the sexes. Stories from the past, as relevant as never before ...

Who knows how our story today, much later, say in 2975, will ever show its relevance.

In the past year it turned out that humans - what's new? - are inclined to look at what they no longer have. No freedom to hug the other. No more big parties. No more distant journeys. The restrictions on the ‘right to individual liberty’ as felt by quite some people. However, prominent Dutch author Ilja Pfeijffer argued the relative nature of that freedom: "Our laws are intended to restrict certain freedoms and guarantee the freedom of others." But, what did 2020 bring us...

The South Korean film Parasite won the Oscar for the very best film, not as a foreign language film, but best of all films.

Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas is You” was the most-streamed Christmas hit at both the end of last year and of this ominous year, a beacon of steadiness.

Scientists also contributed to climate change problems in 2020 by developing a super enzyme that "eats" plastic. Go, empty that plastic soup bowl down to the last drop...

The US and European space agencies NASA and ESA launched the Solar Orbiter, which sent pictures of the sun to Earth, taken at the closest distance from the sun ever. Talking about close-up. In addition, the NASA InSight lander, which had previously landed on Mars, continued to reveal more mysteries of this Red Planet than ever imagined. A result to look at full of admiration. A Japanese space capsule returned bits of soil material from a distant asteroid to Earth. Which raised the question of what a possible alien life form on a distant planet would take from Planet Earth to bring home? Same approach, different perspective.

In various places in the world bright minds are working on the next phase of Artificial Intelligence, through the development of neuromorphic computer chips. In this context, the neural network system of our brain is applied in increasingly ingenious chips, which at the same time are a lot more energy efficient. Biomimicry meets AI, soon in your own living room...

In the medical field, it was shown that if we really want to, by working together, pulling resources and putting aside all system bumps, a (Covid-19) vaccine can be developed and approved within a year. Normally this takes at least 5 to 10 years. Could this be the prelude to more cross-border thinking and acting, and not just in the medical field?

Further deepening insights, enjoying art and eagerly awaiting the time after a worldwide vaccination is no longer an option for those who passed away. In addition to the countless unknown Covid-19 victims - may they rest in peace - several well-known fellow planet dwellers also said goodbye to their exciting existence in the earthly spotlights. Those who enriched our lives, or otherwise moved us...

George Blake, a famous Cold War-era double agent of Dutch descent, was extensively thanked by Putin after his death for his work on "the good cause". Pierre Cardin, fashion king and businessman in one, has stopped designing for eternity. Kirk Douglas, one of the old Hollywood heroes continues to shine, unfortunately only on screen. Ennio Morricone will no longer provide a new feature film with timeless music, such as his music score for the classic Once upon a Time in the West. John le Carré will never again write a spy thriller just as Paolo Rossi will never dribble on the fields again, though he continues to play in the collective football memory in the blue shirt of the Italian national team, leading them to the 1982 World Cup title again and again. Just like Juliette Gréco, a French singing icon from days gone by, who is allowed to show her skills "elsewhere".

The literary world mourned the passing of Irish poet Derek Mahon, Rubem Fonseca, a literary giant from Brazil and Spanish master storyteller Carlos Ruiz Zafón, among others. Vera "we'll meet again" Lynn, forever the woman who continued to give the troops hope for victory in WWII, remains a lady to look forward to, one day. Little Richard, King of (early) Rock 'n Roll, continues to be streamed, but with his body in a different place. The art world lost icons such as Ulay and Christo, for whom it finally “was a wrap". For Americans in particular, the deadly helicopter crash of top basketball player Kobe Bryant and his daughter was a tragedy. The passing of Sean Connery, the primal Bond, James Bond, was a farewell to an era for movie lovers worldwide. And last but not least a farewell to Maradona, one of the greatest football players ever, who was almost God in Napoli, but at least Jesus...

What are the lessons, the insights from the past year?

The realization, once again, of the vulnerability of man. Life really cannot be molded your way, wherever you live and whoever you are. The acknowledgement that the world is bigger than yourself and yet very small. The notion that we all inhabit this tiny planet that we have to deal with. That climate will continue to play a role, and the threats thereof will be taken a lot more seriously, since the USA will rejoin the Paris climate agreement (linked to the Kyoto Protocol) on day 1 of the Biden Administration. Also an energy transition that is on the rise, increasingly supported by the institutional investors in the world. And where the money goes, opportunities arise and developments accelerate.

Will there be a vision of the future, accelerated by Covid-19, in which the small and large questions, to each other and to the never-lying mirror, may be asked, whereby it is allowed to dream - the imagination-accelerator of every human being. What if...

...we continue to applaud from time to time the health workers, and, well, why not, also other servants of society and everyone who makes our daily lives just that much more pleasant, dismissing the thought that the world is all centered around us.

What if we decide to reflect on ourselves and each other a little more often, whereby we consciously delve into what really drives ourselves and others, with love and attention.

What if we just compliment the teachers every now and then and hold back when we believe our child has been wrongly reprimanded by that very same teacher who is doing her or his best every day, often squeezed between rules, laws, dozens of wishes of children and desires of anxious parents projected on their offspring.

What if we more often reprimand ourselves instead of the other.

What if we want to recognize more permanently, really, that man is imperfect, so we too, and that everyone from gas station attendant, teacher, hospital employee, scientist, artist to hotel magnate, CEO, King and President is in essence an awkward being who tries to navigate all ups & downs on the bumpy path of life, and can actually, very regularly, use the help of someone else. Making life a little bearable together, but no more than that.

What if politicians, pre-eminently representatives of their own right, throw off that absolute and unshakable prerogative of their own insights, and open their eyes more often while their mouth pauses a little longer and their head gives full attention to his or her opponent, hence arriving to a much better outcome for all involved.

What if we use our dreams as the first sketches on the canvas of our transformed self, a new point on the horizon, and then apply the thick blobs of paint over the sketched lines with the hand and brush and blend it into an imposing and inspiring and appealing work of art that offers endless perspectives and never gets boring. A work that inspires reflection and dialogue, with pleasure and with respect for the maker and the viewers.

What if the gray tones float to the surface, evolving into the new preferred color spectrum, generating a more enjoyable life, better than ever before.

What if new life that, whether or not after a long bumpy road, is born in the years to come, will be nourished with gratitude, optimism and more harmony.

What if all of the above is realized in one way or another, where the mere striving is a first step towards achieving something that is somewhere between desire, ambition and goal. What if the boundaries there also blur and wish and dream lead to something achievable.

That intense longing, those ever-continuing efforts to do good while comprehending your own fallibility, to give more space to each other and the nuance, in pleasant company of your loved ones; that’s what I wish for you in the coming year. In good health.

Cheers!