Well done and well wishes

Secretary Bunch reflects on a tumultuous year.

At the beginning of 2020 we made resolutions, personal and professional. We imagined the year we would have, the challenges we would take on, the goals we would accomplish, the possibilities we would embrace.

2020 was certainly not the year we envisioned. But as I reflect on the past 12 months, I am proud and inspired by how many of those resolutions we did accomplish. We tackled new challenges, we pursued our mission relentlessly, and we embraced the opportunities that arose.

The Smithsonian served the American public through one of the most difficult and tumultuous years of my lifetime. We found creative ways to maximize digital capacity and support audiences stuck at home; we led innovative and urgent research; we contextualized and facilitated healthy discussion around deeply polarizing issues. And most of all, we gave hope to a nation sorely in need of it.

I am deeply grateful to the Smithsonian community who came together to make that possible. As we mourn the deep losses and grieve the hardship of this year, we also must remember to honor the successes that sustained us. In a holiday season more somber, more introspective than many, I encourage you to recognize and take pride in all you have accomplished.

For myself, over the past few weeks I have been reflecting on the small moments of peace that helped me through this year. When we first were able to reopen the Udvar-Hazy Center and the National Zoo, for instance. I watched our staff put aside fear to greet one another, to share a joke or some life news, to savor the feeling of being back together. And I knew that we would get through this.

Every time I went into my deserted office on a Saturday or Sunday at 7 am, I’d encounter the folks at the security desk. I had the luxury of coming in before most would, but they came in at that time every day to protect our buildings. We’d have small check-ins – simply asking each other how we were doing, whether everything was ok. No matter how exhausted or worried I felt, those conversations never failed to cheer me up.

Earlier in the year, a stranger stopped me at the grocery store. As I awkwardly maneuvered to keep my shopping cart a healthy six feet between us, she said delightedly, “You’re Lonnie Bunch and I love the Smithsonian! Thank you for all that you’re doing.” Moments like this remind me how large the Smithsonian community truly is, why our work matters, and why we need to keep going.

This year, those brief flashes of human connection sustained me. 2020 revealed the awesome vitality and resilience of this community and the country we serve. When I needed strength for myself, I knew where to look.

My hope for all of us is that we take these next few weeks to find balance, to recuperate, to restore our spirits. Though I am saddened not to spend the holidays with my children and my mother as we typically do, I choose to focus on gratitude.

This December, as we log on to family video chats and send presents from afar, I am grateful for the technology that allows us to celebrate together across these distances. I am grateful for all those friends and strangers who greet, support, and find joy with one another. And most of all, I am grateful for the hints of optimism the new year offers. The end is in sight. We don’t know when, but we know do that soon we will travel again, gather again, hold our loved ones close again.

Wherever you are, however you choose to celebrate, I wish you and your families joy and health this holiday season and in the coming year.

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