Solstice and vaccine arrive to offer promise of brighter days ahead

Monday is the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. The solstice is the turning point when, little by little, each day ahead will become longer. It is the original winter holiday, celebrated at least 10,000 years before the first Christmas.

This year, the solstice is a perfect metaphor for what we are living through: a pandemic that has us trapped in a deep well of darkness and suffering, but with the promise of a vaccine drawing us, day by day, towards the light of health and safety.

So although the persistent, unspeakable death toll may overwhelm us with grief and force us to stay home and dial down our holiday festivities, we have plenty of hope on the horizon if we lift our eyes to see it.

In fact, those of us eager to see an end to this awful year might go ahead and use the solstice to mark the beginning of a new one, as our ancient ancestors did. Putting 2020 behind us right away would certainly make for a cheerier holiday season.

We can focus on these reasons for hope that 2021 will be better:

On Jan. 20, when Joe Biden is inaugurated and he, Dr. Jill, their two dogs and one cat all move into the White House, our election will finally be 100 percent over. The anticipation of the election was exhausting enough. But the tension has dragged on long after we voted, and even now, after the electoral college voted, the dead-enders haven’t let go. But with every passing day, we have sturdier hope that we’ll soon have a president who governs rather than tweets.

We also hope that erstwhile gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp and his supporters will follow Trump into the final stage of grief, which is acceptance. The supporters will go home and lay down their guns, and Culp will drop his ridiculous lawsuit against Secretary of State Kim Wyman.

In the coming year, we hope for real progress towards racial justice in our communities, and peace on our streets. After this year of reckoning and recognition, there is ample evidence that systemic change is possible if we persist.

Building on the passage of new, density-promoting zoning changes in Olympia, we have reasons to hope for more affordable housing. That hope is bolstered by what city officials report is an increase in applications for housing starts — both single- and multi-family — in Lacey, Tumwater and Olympia.

We can hope for progress in reducing homelessness, because our local governments are getting better at working together, and there has been an uptick in both federal and state funding. And if all goes well, Interfaith Works’ new shelter and permanent supportive housing — now under construction on Martin Way — will open before the end of 2021. There also will be a new space for a warming center next winter.

At the national level, we can hope for a bigger, juicier federal recovery package that narrows rather than widens economic inequality. In 2020, we got used to hearing the word “trillions” to describe federal relief; now we just need to make sure that it’s trillions in federal investments that actually pay dividends in a better future for all of us.

The most important thing we might hope for in the coming year will require some effort from us: It’s the restoration of our national recognition of objective reality. To be clear: There are not two realities, one liberal and the other conservative. Objective reality is singular, and without ideology. In the coming year, we hope to reaffirm the difference between opinion and fact.

We hope for conversations grounded in objective truth, which are the only way to solve problems and sustain civilization. It will take an ocean of truth-telling to drown out hateful conspiracy theories and force their purveyors to crawl back under their rocks.

All these hopes won’t come to pass all at once; improvements will be as incremental as the lengthening of days. We still have to live through the months of winter before the vaccines take hold, the lilacs bloom, and 2020 recedes from view.

So this year, the recipe for a happy holiday season is to give each other all the love and cheer we can muster right now, when we need it so much, while keeping our eyes on the horizon of hope ahead.

We wish all our readers warm, safe and healthy celebrations, and a new year filled with joy, freedom and eventually exuberant, affectionate bear hugs.

This story was originally published December 20, 2020 at 5:45 AM.