We Can’t Assume Each Step Forward Is Permanent
We can’t assume each step forward is permanent. That’s just a fact.
I know there’s a tendency to view any positive progress with hope, with the earnest desire to see that momentum continue unabated. That’s natural and, frankly, we should maintain this positivity, particularly in difficult times such as these.
But it’s important to also recognize that plans and paths forward aren’t always (ever) straight-line. There will be twists and turns, back and forth on the road to getting to where we want to go.
This is the case right now with the treatments for COVID-19 we keep hearing about everyday, because we’re in a race for a cure and, ultimately, a vaccine. One day, we get positive news about potential treatments, and on another, we learn that they’re not working quite as expected, or at the pace we’d like.
Of course, that’s not just the case with this virus. It’s also the case with just about anything worthwhile we take on. The thing is, it’s par for the course. When the problems we’re tackling aren’t easy ones, when they’re complex and messy and human, they don’t lend themselves to linear trajectories.
They force us to think harder, to work differently, to ask questions of ourselves in ways we’re not used to. They push us to our boundaries as we try and figure out ways to solve for them, to get to the other side.
That’s why they’re complex problems. If they were easy to fix, they’d have been solved long ago.
So, by all means, be optimistic - we need to be. But we should be optimistic with the full understanding that to get to where we need to go, we’ll have to deal with a few (possibly many) obstacles along the way.
