Message from the President December 2020
A Very Merry Christmas!
When you received your issue of the Pump this month, I hope it brought a smile to your face. We have dinally come to the end of a very different kind of year, and hopefully it will leave as quickly as it came: suddenly, and without warning. As a child, when I would think forward to what the world would look like in 2020, I envisioned dlying cars, friendly robots, walls in your house being giant televisions, and people being able to see each other on the phone to chat. At the time, it all sounded so very cool to me. Who knew that we would actually get video phones, but that they would be the only way in which we can spend some quality time with all of our friends? Indeed, our convention this year was essentially in front of video phones, and while it was super cool, there is a big place in my heart for everyone I saw and I didn’t enjoy not being able to give them a hug.
When the world changes suddenly, breaking all the rules and leaving each of us to navigate a new way around life, it creates chances for great success and innovation, while it also takes an emotional toll. I really love carnival glass conventions, but I had no idea when I went to the Tampa Bay convention at the beginning of the year, it would be the only one I could attend in person. Recently Tampa Bay announced that they couldn’t have an in-person convention in 2021 and I just sighed. I am incredibly proud of the way the carnival glass community has come together this year to stand against the changes created by COVID, which also saw our friends successfully use technology to bridge the gap between the generations (seeing a woman teach her great grandson how to use Zoom, and then be able to chat with him on video throughout the year is about as heartwarming as it gets). I also feel that we have entered into a time where the elim-ination of the generation gap has breathed fresh life into our hobby. Who knew when this year began that we would be forced to solve some challenges that would end up dixing some of the problems we have worried about in carnival glass for a long time?
And yet, we return to that emotional toll. It has been a very hard year. We aren’t meant to be cooped up in our own spaces for most of a year. We are social by nature, especially when it comes to carnival glass. 80% of the reason people buy carnival glass is to look at its beauty, to treasure it, to behold it. But darn it, 20% of the reason we buy carnival glass is to show it to our friends, to feel pride in dinding/ owning it, to get joy looking in your friends’ faces when they look at your glass in awe. Again, we can send pictures of our glass (and we do daily by the millions of pictures), but handing a hefty Christmas Compote to someone as they gauge the weight and mass of it can’t be replicated electronically. We know several people in carnival glass who enjoy conversing with others a lot, and I worry about them.
My company broadcasts conferences globally online, usually from the conference. This year, though, has been all about the “virtual conference” where we connect with each of our speakers (at their homes) and broadcast them to the large paying audience who wants to hear from them about various things. Busi-ness has been booming this year (yay!), but it has given me a bunch of insight into people, and the toll shows through. We broadcast a gentleman the other day (an attorney) who presented on some boring legal stuff. 20 minutes short of ending, he suddenly trailed off, sat very quietly for 20 minutes not responding to our gentle “may we help somehow?” requests and wiped tears from his eyes. I’ve Zoomed with speakers who, when they saw other humans on the other side of the screen, were suddenly VERY chatty, very frenetic, very “OH MY GOD another PERSON!” They then tell you too much about anything and everything be-cause… they are lonely. And there have been other things, things even crazier, things in anger and things that made no sense, simply because this year has taken a toll on people’s mental health very differently.
Carnival glass is an enormous family. We are all connected through our love of beautiful glass, our shared collecting histories, and by friendship. And worrying about your family during hard times is just something we do. I have been part of the ICGA family for a very long time and I really miss each of you. I know that you feel the same way in your own way. 2021 doesn’t yet appear to be a time where every-thing will return to normal (and I know no one is ready for another year of all of this). We need to continue using whatever we can to stay close, to share, and to bring warmth to our family members. I pray we can be together in July, but nothing is certain right now.
And so, as I typically do this time of year, I wish you the most merry of Christmases, the happiest of Hanukkahs, and the biggest hugs imaginable. We are going to make it through this. We are already better and different than we were before, and the future will bring more and new and exciting things. Hold close to everything you love and have, but know that every-thing changes, sometimes in far reaching ways. Your carnival glass family is here for you and loves you very much. That will never change. You have beauty in your home and in your heart, and you have many friends.
Brian
