The lyric is one of the most famous of all.
"Summertime And the livin' is easy Fish are jumpin' And the cotton is high…"
But summertime 2021 is turning out to be not so easy. It depends where you are in the world. For some there’ll be staycations, for some there’ll be an overseas holiday, (with a lot of Covid testing along the way), for some there’ll be hard work ahead as businesses try to recover from the impact of the pandemic. For many, Covid 19 is still making a direct impact on health and wellbeing.
And for the world as a whole, there’s the challenge of getting vaccine programmes rolled out everywhere not just in the wealthiest countries.
Let’s hope it happens. For summer 2022 to be easier, we do need to work it out together.
And that includes companies and all of us individuals; remote vs home working, rebuilding economic stability, new forms of social and professional interaction, learning lessons for the future… The list is long.
But as we head into the heat of summer (in this European part of the world) we can take encouragement. Just a year ago, we were in severe lockdowns, there was no vaccine and the road ahead was very unclear. We’ve come a long way thanks to scientists, governments, companies and people ‘working it out’ together. If we keep going it will get better for all of us.
George Gershwin wrote the music to Summertime’, the lyrics were written by DuBose Heyward. In the second verse Heyward goes on to write:
"One of these mornings You're gonna rise up singing Yes, you'll spread your wings And you'll take to the sky."
That verse is less well known but it can encourage us all to believe that better times are ahead if we can all keep going.
Have a great summer wherever you are going, or staying, from all of us at DMA Partners.