Dear HLIT Retreaters,
As 2020 draws to a close, I am grateful for historian Heather Cox Richardson’s erudite abilities and desire to put our world into context, to remember, to elucidate, and to share our history through the story of how we got to where we are right now. This compelling read and subsequent reflection on 2020 also reminds me of a great sermon I heard Rabbi David Wolpe give several years ago inspired by his reading of Jared Diamond’s book CATASTROPHE. Wolpe ponders over why Cro-Magnon Man survived over Neanderthal Man. And he boils it down not to longer lifespans per se, but to memory. The ability to remember—and to tell the story—of how we, as people, as individuals, and as societies, got out of a jam to avert annihilation. Stories are indeed, the fabric of social survival. I encourage you to read Richardson’s summation “December 30, 2020” and make it an indelible part of our collective memories.