Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Dear 2020...

Episode Date: December 31, 2020

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” - Viktor Frankl

Dear 2020, I bet you think I'm writing to complain. Yeah, to complain about what a pain in the ass you've been. About the disruption you've caused in our lives, the role you've played in fanning the flames of divide. Maybe complain about the suffering you've put our friends and family through, about making us second guess all the things we were so sure of. But no, 2020, that's not why I'm writing. See, earlier this year, after having to cancel a trip,

I found myself with a little extra time on my hands and picked up a book called Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel. Incredibly powerful book. But one quote stood out to me above everything else, one sentence would end up being perhaps the most important message I've read in a long time. Victor Frankel says Everything can be taken from a man

but one thing the last of the human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances to choose one's own way and while 2020 you've taken a lot from a lot of people

and that may be the way you'd like to make your grand exit but I'd be remiss not to explain something to you is the clock one lines down on your final moments. As we turn the page on the 365 days circus you have so nonchalantly conducted, one of the most powerful gifts someone can be given is line of sight to what they can endure. To understand just how strong they are, to realize what they can go through and come out the other side still standing, maybe hurt, maybe tired, but standing.

And I can't help but look around and see the rest of the world on its feet. I can't help but feel like the external hell you brought to fruition has become an internal fire in our souls. I can't help but feel the resolve of the human spirit. It's in our darkest moments that we learn who we really are. It's when we're knocked down that we learn to rise. and then bringing us the former you have brought life to the latter. So please, 2020, don't think you've won.

No, you've planted the seed for redemption. In taking from us, you've made us grateful. In forcing isolation, you've reinforced the love that was already there. In disrupting our livelihoods, you've shown that life goes on. I have no doubt that we'll talk about you years from now is perhaps the most challenging year of our lives. We'll tell stories of the loved ones lost. The lengths we went through to make ends meet to get by.

But in my gut, I know, in my heart, I believe, we'll talk about you 2020 as the year that made us who we are. It will be in having underscerned. stood our strength, that this world changed for the better. So thank you. Now don't let the door hit you on the way out.