{"id":11762,"date":"2021-12-24T07:39:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T13:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/?p=11762"},"modified":"2025-02-14T13:21:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T19:21:22","slug":"21-really-good-things-that-happened-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/21-really-good-things-that-happened-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"21 really good things that happened in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/2021-good-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/2021-good-news\">Mashable<\/a> | By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/author\/chris-taylor\">Chris Taylor<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0on\u00a0December 15, 2021 | Good Things<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Behind the scary headlines, the human race is making a tremendous amount of progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here in the news kitchen, we hear your complaints: This isn\u2019t the 2021 you ordered. This isn\u2019t the 2021&nbsp;<em>any<\/em>&nbsp;of us ordered. Personally, and I think I speak for a lot of patrons of this establishment, I would like to send it back and get one with no Delta variant. Oh, and hold the huge dose of vaccine hesitancy, thanks. I\u2019m allergic to coups at the U.S. Capitol; that should have been listed more prominently on the menu. Who put that damp squib of an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/cop26-climate-protest-images\">international climate change conference<\/a>&nbsp;on top? Combined with the side dish \u2014 a California roll on fire \u2014 it leaves a pretty bitter taste.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, if you scrape those burned edges off the year\u2019s news, a lot of the stuff underneath is actually really good. We don\u2019t hear or don\u2019t think about it, because nothing grabs the attention like a thing gone wrong. A positive story that continues quietly, year on year (the explosive growth of electric vehicles, say, or the collapse of the coal industry), can seem invisible. But trust us, good stuff is cooking, and we\u2019re not just talking medical science miracles (like the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/video\/blind-brain-implant-study\">first brain implant to make a blind person see<\/a>&nbsp;or the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/19\/health\/kidney-transplant-pig-human.html?smid=tw-share\">first animal kidney successfully transplanted into a human<\/a>). These are breadcrumbs compared to the big, hearty, global trends, ones that could make the 2020s a much more satisfying decade than the one-star reviews suggest.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So here it is, direct from the news kitchen, our scraped-off version of 2021. All the big stuff that we can be justifiably proud of this year, in 21 digestible bites. Starting with one that is right under our noses:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Good Things<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1. We fully vaccinated half the human race in a year.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/2021-good-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/2021-good-news\">Check out the rest of the good news here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Check out more great articles in the Shield Insurance Agency Blog<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/health-insurance-for-michigan-families-managing-chronic-conditions\/\">Health Insurance for Michigan Families Managing Chronic Conditions<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/how-life-insurance-can-support-long-term-care-planning-without-replacing-it\/\">How Life Insurance Can Support Long-Term Care Planning Without Replacing It<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/what-happens-if-your-vehicle-is-totaled-understanding-the-auto-insurance-claims-process\/\">What Happens If Your Vehicle Is Totaled, Understanding the Auto Insurance Claims Process<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/why-now-is-a-smart-time-for-michigan-businesses-to-review-liability-coverage-before-spring-foot-traffic-increases\/\">Why Now Is a Smart Time for Michigan Businesses to Review Liability Coverage Before Spring Foot Traffic Increases<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/snowstorms-and-roof-damage-is-your-michigan-home-covered\/\">Snowstorms and Roof Damage: Is Your Michigan Home Covered?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These good things are breadcrumbs compared to the big, hearty, global trends, ones that could make the 2020s a much more satisfying decade than the one-star reviews suggest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[325,1950,1949,77,71,62],"class_list":["post-11762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shield-blog","tag-325","tag-good-news","tag-good-things","tag-insurance","tag-michigan","tag-shield-insurance-agency"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11762"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14928,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11762\/revisions\/14928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}