Our New Year 2022

 

Today’s New York Times stated: “January 2022 arrives as our ways of keeping time seem broken. Calendar pages turn, yet time feels lost.” Yes. It can feel as if time froze. Recent events can seem distant; events of a year ago can seem like they recently occurred. Pandemic time does not have the feel of “real time”.

Of course, time did not freeze. Throughout 2021, the world continued to need research, and we at Wilder Research persevered, despite many obstacles, to do social research to improve the lives of individuals, families, and communities.

I never anticipated that the last of my 40 years as Executive Director of this 104 year old research institute would include navigating through a pandemic. The plague of Covid-19 forced us to balance work and personal responsibilities in unique ways, cope with sickness of ourselves and/or family members, learn how to accomplish a lot of tasks remotely, participate in meetings knowing that a child or grandchild might pop onto the screen, and overcome myriad other challenges – while nevertheless maintaining high standards of quality for our products and services.

Wilder Research staff acted in heroic ways to move our products and services out the door and into the hands of research users. Our mission maintained our motivation because community needs did not freeze in time; organizations striving to make the world a better place did not halt operations. Community leaders, decision-makers, public officials, philanthropic organizations, news media sought greater insight (which research can provide) regarding social issues, to cope with unprecedented experiences.

Whatever 2022 brings – it will not include yesteryear’s standard patterns of living and working. Amidst the “new abnormal”, we might not settle into any predictable arrangements for our lives, for at least some time. But at Wilder Research, the values we hold – such as dedication to community, faith in our colleagues, commitment to high quality research products and services – those will persist and transcend whatever the future drops upon us.

Happy New Year!