Surviving 2020: the Strength of the Pivot

You know how it seemed like everyone was choosing a “Word for 2020” when January rolled around? Is it too late to jump on that bandwagon?

In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t choose a word like “dream” or “travel” or “magical.” They don’t quite fit the year we’ve had so far.

Still, there are many other choices that I’m sure have provided a perfect mindset for this tumultuous year. Words like “breathe,” “calm,” or “home.”

It may be cheating for me to pick my word of the year when the year is two-thirds over, but hey, I still have four months to make it my focus. And maybe I’ll carry it over to 2021, in which case I’m four months early! So I’m going for it.

Without further ado…

my word for the year 2020 is...Pivot.

Prior to 2020, I would have associated the word pivot with activities like marching band, basketball, or farming. I marched in high school and also watched countless band shows when my kids marched during their high school days. One of the many moves a band member needs to learn is the pivot. In pivoting, you’re required to plant the ball of one foot, and then spin on it to reverse or change directions.

In basketball, the pivot is used in a similar way. The player holding the ball plants one foot while moving the other one. In this way, he can change direction quickly to find an open shot or teammate to pass to, without traveling.

There is also the pivot used in farming. My brother, the farmer, will never let me (a farmer’s daughter) live down the fact that I was clueless when I heard him use the term once during a family meeting. I have since learned (and won’t forget), that a “pivot” in farming refers to an irrigation sprinkler system that moves around a central stand connected to a well, river, or another source of water. This central stand is immobile, while the entire sprinkler system rotates in a circle around it.

So why did I choose this marching/basketball/farming term “pivot” to be my word of the year?

Well, there’s the obvious fact that we’ve drastically had to change direction in our lives this year. Teaching went from a face-to-face experience of wiping runny noses and crouching beside struggling readers, to a virtual “Zoom-Room” in which we had to keep kids’ attention while teaching through a screen. These shifting orientations continue as schools start up this fall with one type of instruction but remain always at-the-ready to switch to another.

Other areas of our lives have also changed course. We’ve gone from commuting to work–to setting up a home office. From taking the kids to school–to homeschooling. From worshipping side by side in song together–to standing silently at church, masked and six feet apart. From planning dream vacations–to canceling reservations.

Yes, this has been a year of about-faces. Of reorganizing our homes and redirecting our energy. Nearly everyone on the planet has had to pivot in one way or another.

But there’s something else about a pivot. The thing that makes a pivot a pivot, and not just a normal turn, is that one foot (or irrigation stand) is planted firmly on the ground. It’s not moving. If it moved, the band member would be out of line, the referee would blow the whistle and whirl his hands around in a circle, and the farmer would have a big mess in the middle of his field.

Even though 2020 has required me to change course in so many ways, my best moments have been those in which one foot is firmly planted on the ground.

That ground my foot is standing on? It’s the ground of grace.

As I experienced the wrath of 2020, I’ve both given and received grace. At school, in switching to an online learning platform, I was slow to learn the new tools and skills I needed. Other teachers struggled as well. Parents didn’t know how to support their kids and students’ attention and motivation waned.

But grace kept us moving forward. We learned perseverance and tolerance as we adjusted to the new normal.

Living in close quarters with my three adult family members, my patience ran thin at times. So did theirs. I wasn’t the perfect mom and wife. And they had their issues (which I will graciously not expound on).

But grace kept us in line with our common goals. We learned to communicate more clearly and forgive more readily.

“It helps to remember we were all coming from different directions as we approached the pivot of 2020.”

As we don our masks and socially distance ourselves, we continue to deal with tension and frustration. We find strangers and even friends whose level of vigilance doesn’t line up with ours. They are either much too lenient or far too cautious. In these cases, too, we need to practice grace. It helps to remember we were all coming from different directions as we approached the pivot of 2020.

It reminds me again of my marching band days. In a show, band members are moving all around the field. They’re in different places, playing different instruments, and moving in different directions. But if they are all asked to pivot at once, they can change directions without bumping into one another and knocking each other down. That’s because they’ve planted one foot.

Again, think of that point their foot is planted on, as grace.

Notice, they are turning on the ball of their foot. When we pivot, digging in our heels won’t work. I often catch myself messing up my own turns with the heel-dig move. Getting stuck in my ways and my beliefs, I forget to listen to others and consider where they’re coming from. Digging in our heels prevents us from moving forward and going with the flow. And it usually results in someone getting hurt.

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

— Eph. 4:32

I attended a training on Zoom last week in which the instructor asked participants to name the first word that came to mind as we thought about the upcoming school year. Three words appeared over and over again in the chat.

Uncertainty.

Anxiety.

And Grace.

We do have much to be nervous about right now. A global pandemic. Racial tension. A divisive election.

We’re pivoting like never before.

But if we offer grace during these uncertain times, we will build rather than tear down relationships. If we give ourselves grace, we’ll realize our own humanity and our need for others. If we depend on God’s grace, we will still be standing when life once again pivots back to normal. Whatever that new normal may be.

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ”

— 1 Peter 5:10

Faith, MusingsLinda HanstraSeptember 5, 2020COVID-19, Word of the year4 Comments