Wie es eigentlich gewesen ist

Writer: Kiete Schmitt

2020: well, for many, this year has ‘gone by even faster’ than we always say to each other on 31 December anyway. It is easier to remember the things that didn't go well. It is a crazy trick of humans to always remember the setbacks.

This is also understandable because the beautiful moments are more fragile and you would prefer to hold on to them for as long as possible, even though you know that cannot be forever. After hills come valleys. Therefore, you will speak and remember those valleys more often.

This also makes it easy to dismiss 2020 as ‘a lost year’, completely dominated by corona. A year without the Eurovision Song Contest, without the Olympics, not to mention all the lustra that were coming up, including that of DWARS. A year of distance rather than closeness, you might say.

But let's look at what did go right in 2020. Not to push away the sad things or forget what happened, but to start the new year on a positive note and perhaps come to the conclusion that 2020 was not a lost year after all.

At first I wanted to make a kind of positive review of 2020, but who would know more about all that happened this year than you, a true DWARSer. What I would talk about would all be old hat. That's why I want to look back in a different way. I want to start with the words ‘wie es eigentlich gewesen ist’ (‘how it actually was/happened’). Why am I writing it in German? There are many reasons for that, but for the sake of your reading time, let me mention only the most immediate ones.

One (German) Leopold von Ranke wrote in 19th century that history is about describing ‘das was eigentlich gewesen ist’. Indeed, in this century, people started looking for the content of the subject of history. What was ‘practising history’ and what was it about? Their answer in one word: objectivity. As a historian, you have to look for objectivity, in fact for truth. But what is truth?

In an age of conspiracy theories, algorithms, social media and plenty of other things that make people doubt themselves on a regular basis, objectivity and truth are terribly difficult concepts.

My aim is not to find the answer to objectivity, but to make you remember that objectivity and truth do not exist. Everyone has their own truth and even the common truth that sometimes seems to be there is always changing. Socrates did not say for nothing: “All I know is that I know nothing” and he was not a man without brains. So in this piece, I don't want to start changing ‘truth’ either, I want to add something to the ‘truth’ that is already there.

In 2019, Rutger Bregman wrote the book ‘Most people are virtuous’. I, and perhaps you too, have read his book. Of course, there is a lot to be said about it, but let's assume that what Bregman says is true, then there is also something positive to be said about ‘the virtuous man’ in this situation. If you do try to be objective, you should also be able to show the other side.

Despite the contagions, restrictions, casualties and all the attendant homework misery, the corona crisis has also brought people some insights about themselves. For instance, we (thankfully) did not all go at each other with knives when the toilet paper ran out, or when the coffee shops seemed to be closing for a very short time. We got in line and we kept waiting. We helped each other. We started working at home in the chaos. Fourteen of us went into quarantine in a filthy student dorm. We kept fighting against racism, wearing mouth caps. Together. We all need a reason to keep going and I can say with reasonable certainty that that reason is your family, friends and other loved ones.

This is why I want to reflect on the strength of human beings. Alone we would never have survived, we are group animals that have been fighting together since time immemorial. When we were hungry, we attacked the mammoth together and when a rare virus emerged, we also joined the fight together. For a year now we have been fighting and still that fire in us has not been extinguished. Yes we are tired, yes we would love to see our grandparents and be able to let loose in the club again, yet we keep going, together.

My story about ‘Wie es eigentlich gewesen ist’, is not about a different truth, it is also about these times and they are reeeeally tough. If I could, I would magic away the virus in no time. ‘Wie es eigentlich gewesen ist’ is about the same, different truth, a truth that can exist simultaneously. Yours, man's. The truth of our adaptability, our compassion, our patience and our perseverance.

The truth of this crisis is that everyone is really just trying, and yet we are together. Nobody was prepared for this and yet we rolled up our sleeves and everyone did what they could, within their means. I never thought that human beings could be so flexible. Man's strength is survival.

There is light at the end of the tunnel and that light is shining harder and harder, so don't give up. After this crisis, hopefully other, same truths will emerge more often. Now sometimes that seems a bit early to do already, but try anyway to get those pink put on purple glasses.

After all, one of your greatest freedoms is how you react to things. You control your own life, so hang those garlands yourself (at an appropriate distance):

‘Do you have a favourite saying?’ the boy asked. ‘Yes I do,’ said the mole. ‘Which one is it?’ ‘If the water is up to your lips, have a cake.’ ‘And does that work?’ ‘Every time.’

So I hope you keep smiling, because that is a simple way to look more beautiful. I hope you keep crying, because tears never fall without a reason and are your strength and not your weakness. I hope you keep asking for help. Asking for help does not mean giving up, it means refusing to give up.

Life is hard but you are always loved.

Anyway, I already have my glasses on and wish you a wonderful 2021!

Kiete

(Courtesy of some quotes from The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse by Charlie Mackesy)