A Thank You From Pearson.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
Christmas offers the chance for reflection, a time to bid farewell to the old year and look ahead to the new. The 2020 edition can’t come soon enough and, if we haven’t quite made it through the pandemic yet, it feels like we’re getting there.
In a year that saw so many industries struggle, the Covid crisis led to a cycling boom. At Pearson, we’re only too aware this was a fortuitous by-product of a terrible situation. Nonetheless, Pearson would like to take this opportunity to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us this year. Cycling is the perfect antidote for many of life’s challenges, countering stress and keeping us fulfilled.
The most famous chronicler of the festive period is, of course, Charles Dickens. Published in 1843, A Christmas Carol features themes that feel particularly poignant this year; smiling in the face of adversity, for example (Tim Cratchit), or the Christian message that none of us is beyond redemption. (Ebenezer Scrooge, Dominic Cummings, The Donald.)
Dickens is an author we’ve always felt a connection to at Pearson. The year our founder Tom Pearson opened for business, in 1860, Dickens released Great Expectations, later one of his best-known works. The previous year, as Tom was raising ‘ye olde seede capital’, saw the arrival of another classic, A Tale of Two Cities.
Its title seems equally apposite for the past 12 months. For those of us who live in cities and towns, it’s hard not to think of them as two different places, before Covid and after. And the bike has played its part, helping us navigate the city more safely, or leave it altogether. The most famous passage in A Tale of Two Cities (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”), feels like a prescient analysis of metropolitan life in 2020:
- It was the best of times
Clapping for the NHS, shopping for Granny.
- It was the worst of times
To the many we have lost.
- It was the age of wisdom
JVT. OMG.
- It was the age of foolishness
Barnard Castle, first or second left?
- It was the epoch of belief
A world-beating test-and-trace system. Oven-ready…
- It was the epoch of incredulity
…Bear with, bear with.
- It was the season of light
Captain Tom.
- It was the season of darkness
Tier 4
- It was the spring of hope.
Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine.
- It was the winter of despair
So, it won’t all be over by Christmas?
Well, it doesn’t look like it but, once again, thank you for supporting Pearson in what has been a year like no other. Keep riding and we hope to join you on, or off-road, in 2021.