In presenting one person’s experiences in that first pandemic year, Desiderata grapples with the intensity and chaos of a time marked by individual disruption and societal convulsion (i.e. George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement).

It also explores the pandemic’s strange paradox. It was a global experience that touched every corner of the world; but each one of us experienced it differently, depending on our specific situation — our resources, work life, family structure, support systems . . . even our individual temperaments.

Ultimately, Desiderata is an artifact of that tumultuous, epochal time.