Reading for Assembly – Wednesday 19 January 2022
Each year Google produce what they call their ‘Zeitgeist’ video – a distillation of billions of online searches woven together with footage of world events from the previous 12 months. It makes for rather wonderful viewing, the amazing side of Big Tech; without companies of the size, scale and reach such a production would be impossible. The film is truly global and in many ways language is immaterial as the imagery is intoxicating, a creation that is a cross between historical archive and modern art. The 2021 version is available to watch the the bottom of this blog entry.
2021 was difficult wasn’t it? I returned to school at the start of last week hoping that things would be better and planning for them to do just that. So far, I’ve not been disappointed. Our testing revealed very few cases of infection, and though some of you may have had a delayed start to the school year the overall absence rate is low. That may change of course. We are not out of the pandemic woods just yet and we have to all be patient. The high levels of vaccination, masks and all of that will help but ultimately mitigation is damage limitation. One day, soon hopefully, we will have turned a corner and the road will be well lit in front of us. We will come back stronger.
Difficult times make us all reflect on meaning more, and this is a thread through the Zeitgeist video as you’ll see. The most important questions swim to the surface as other matters drop away. The search for meaning, for healing, for memories, for faith. The importance of family, of charity, of equality and a sustainable future for our home here on Earth. One of the things that comes through most strongly in the video is the fundamental importance of human relationships and fighting injustice – fighting often for others whom you will never know. There will be huge challenges again in the coming year – the images are streamed onto our screens at home every evening from Afghanistan, Tigray, Kazakhstan and Myanmar, so the world will be troubled to be sure, but we can all do a bit to make 2022 a year of resurgence, of endeavour and of belief.
I always find the images in Zeitgeist moving, and I suppose it’s bound to be that way by design. I trust that you did too – and that you recognised some of the faces and sounds in those 2 minutes and contemporary history unfurled as a digital tapestry before you.
I wrote this assembly last Wednesday, on the third day back, on the first sunny day of Spring. As I sat in my office bathed in the golden light of a January morning I was filled with optimism for the months to come. We are in a fantastic place to make exciting things happen – so lets all work to come back stronger and make 2022 a year to be proud of.
Google Year in Search Video:- https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2021/GLOBAL/
