We can all gleefully say good bye to 2020, a classic year etched into history. We watched the virus travel from China to Italy, and by March it came to America. In record time the stock market went from a record high to a bear market low. On March 12^th, Broadway went dark along with everything else on our calendars.  Those not providing essential services stayed home to flatten the curve, except for shoppers clearing the shelves of the few open stores, fighting especially hard over toilet paper.

Health care workers heroically manned the front lines watching colleagues fall to the mysterious virus, unsure if they were bringing it home to their families. Reminding us of the firefighters running up the burning towers, our friends and relatives who never signed up for combat duty used American perseverance and ingenuity to fight the invisible enemy. Sharing in their exasperation, their fellow citizens came out each evening for a 7pm ovation.

The dawn of spring saw most international borders closed, an estimated half of humanity living under lockdowns, and the world’s greatest cities simultaneously silenced. Pope Francis prayed in an empty St. Peter’s Square.  Lingering economic wounds may have contributed to the summer of discontent in America’s cities where peaceful protests for racial justice often provided a front for rioting and looting. Autumn brought the culmination of the most unusual presidential election anyone has seen, which remains contested at year-end.

With the stock market back at record highs, some economists are observing a K shaped recovery sustained by lucky workers able to work from home, while others fall into economic depression. The scientific and economic models can’t measure the despair that comes from financial ruin.  As the virus continues to run rampant, hospitals are filling up again, but the light at the end of the tunnel shows vaccines getting administered to our most vulnerable and the rest of us will have them soon. History provides further hope.  After killing more than 20 million people worldwide, with no vaccine to rescue society, the flu pandemic of 1918 saw its final wave in the spring of 1920 before fading away.  Then like now, social distancing was the most effective deterrent.

Ready to return to normal, people came out that spring to social gatherings in the healthy fresh air.  The Yankees’ new acquisition, Babe Ruth, excited packed stadiums across the country.  The thirst for spectator sports led to the creation of the NFL in the summer of 1920 and the Summer Olympic Games brought thousands of athletes and their fans to Antwerp.  60,000 more people came to Rome and packed into St Peter’s Square for the canonization of St. Joan of Arc while more than 100,000 celebrated the same day in May at Westminster Cathedral and French churches throughout London.  In fact, 1920 not only marked the end of the pandemic but the beginning of a great flourishing of social arts and entertainment as theaters and stadiums were constructed throughout America.

So here’s to a return of the Roaring Twenties! Entrepreneurs are eager to take advantage of the post pandemic landscape as new business models take shape. We are lucky that COVID-19 is not more lethal and have learned valuable lessons to prepare for a pandemic that will be. We learned that Americans are willing to come together and make great sacrifices for the common good while exceptional individuals pursue solutions to our problems. With the warp speed of messenger RNA, we are reminded that there has never been a greater force for human progress than American exceptionalism.

It will take a little more patience until our lives return to normal, but we will all be together again soon enjoying the great gift of life. It won’t be normal in New York City until Broadway reopens but let’s hope for a bright start on April 1^st at E 161^st St. in The Bronx.

Happy New Year!