 Thanks for your consideration of the views expressed in this ThinkTech commentary, which deals with how COVID has changed us. There's no question that COVID has had a lasting impact on us individually and on society as a whole. We gave up our masks, perhaps too early, but in the pain of these last three years we now seem to have given up our memory of how it has been and what if anything we have learned from it. We have endured a fair amount of isolation and our social connections have frayed in the process. The fear or guilt of failing health has dominated our lives. Worries about jobs and security have made us feel vulnerable in so many ways. The political climate, including the violent outrages of people like Trump, a rise in autocracy and global failure to deal with climate change, have made us wonder if the next generation has even a fighting chance. Many of us have largely spent our time indoors, experiencing job loss or terrifying transition into uncertainty. The activities we once actively enjoyed have taken a back seat. As time passes without the seasons of sustained effort and success, our dispositions may have declined while we weren't watching. And we have changed. Our communities have changed. The world has changed. The memories of life before are distant and fragmented. Actually, in the words of Thomas Wolfe, we can't go home again, and indeed the notion of home is likely to have changed for us over these past three years. When we wake up from this rip-van-winkle sleep, the streets where we live may be the same, but we have all moved to other places. Some people have experienced dramatic transformation, while others have had more subtle changes. Whether we recognize it or not, the three-year hiatus we have had is a major denominator for our collective world view. Our perspectives on the country and the social fabric have been torn. National optimism is not so easy anymore, and we are left unprepared for a continuation or repetition of the trouble we have seen. Some people are energetic enough to see this as a time of opportunity and advantage, but frankly most of us feel like victims. Our view of the future has been altered. We are less comfortable with our lives and the world we had three years ago. We live with the prospect of further deterioration, uncertain of what will happen to us and our kids. Yes, we could lose another three years to this or other pathogens, and that could have a huge effect on us and everything around us. So what happens next? Three years could turn into six and six into nine. We find ourselves trapped in this troubled discomfort, yearning for a return to normalcy whatever that was and whenever we lost it, just as some other people less thoughtful yearn for a return to time when America was great, whatever that was, and whenever we lost it. The path to better times is elusive. We are not yet at the end of our discomfort, and we cannot yet see the end of the tunnel. We are rather living in a time that demands that we take inventory, that we acknowledge the realities and risks facing us, and that we find the moral strength to move on to better ways and days. This applies to us individually and collectively. Over these three years we have lost something precious as a society. We can no longer claim to be the city on the hill or the greatest generation or most exceptional nation. Our concern for each other and our belief in the future simply isn't what it was, and what we have lost may not be recapturable. It's time to break from the emotional lockdown of the last three years and gather and connect again, perhaps in a more dedicated, motivated and caring way than before. We know what we have to do, and after suffering the loss of these years from our lives, it's now time to do it. Or else. Thanks for your consideration of the views expressed in this Think Tech commentary. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Mahalo.