Kindness is a folding chair

The Financial Times recently wrote of the pandemic and the year 2020 that it had been “an individualized experience”, that “we do not seem to have come together, at least in the West”.

While it is true that each of us sees the world through our own particular shade of pink through gray, and that loneliness, anxiety and loss have defined the lives of many this past year, I would argue that we have also seen an unprecedented outpouring of support and community; that we have in fact come together.

The lockdowns and regulations - characterized mainly by their unpredictability - catapulted independent bookshops like ours into uncharted territory. The old adage, ‘calm on the surface, and underneath paddle like hell’, is the one that perhaps most aptly describes our state of mind for the past 10 months. 

This was not where we planned to be this year and certainly not what we planned to be doing. 

In a classic sink or swim moment, we decided to change things up. We turned the business on its head and started delivering books by bike, car and on foot. You couldn’t come to us, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t come to you. 

It was hard work, but also by far the most rewarding experience of our almost twelve year existence. We have always been keenly aware of the community we are privileged to be a part of, but 2020 was, as they say, a ‘next level' experience. 

We received requests from near and (very) far on all imaginable platforms, and for each and every order, every gesture of support we are eternally grateful. It isn’t over yet, but now, at least, we can say with confidence that we are not alone. 

So, yes, the pandemic has certainly been a lonely, isolating and individualized experience, but it has also shone a light on the many communities that have come together in support of what they hold near and dear because as we know, it is often only when we stand to lose something that we realize its true value. 

I would also like to express my enormous gratitude to Hannah, Amy, Emma and Gustav (our Corona bike messenger). These are the amazing, wonderful people I get to spend my days with and without whom none of what is described above would be possible.

What we at Books & Company experienced in 2020 was more than support, it was kindness. Every word, every note of thanks, every smile and every thumbs up was an act of kindness that sustained us through it all. Crisis reveals not only strengths and weaknesses, it also reveals to ourselves what truly matters, and what truly matters is kindness.

So let us embark on what will surely be a better, brighter 2021 with these words written by Ian Frazier in The New Yorker Magazine: 

‘Kindness is a folding chair we carry with us everywhere’.

With gratitude and the best of wishes for a Happy New Year!

Isabella and the staff of Books & Company