History Ended Five Years Ago

Even as the people who misled us about Covid-19 make embarrassing admissions, so much is unknown — putting a shadow on all history before it.

The president was shot in 1963. People still want to know what happened, and Donald Trump is promising to release the last government documents about that time. Why don’t we want to know what is far more shrouded in mystery: What happened to us in 2020?

Certain four-digit combinations that make up a year seem to stamp themselves on my mind. In my medieval studies, I contemplated 1115, the year the founder of the Cistercians, Bernard, founded a new religious house, Clairvaux Abbey.