Saturday, December 31, 2016

2017 Thoughts


Here we are, on the eve of a new year.  The previous year (2016) has been universally panned as one of the worst years in our collective mental history.  From political divisiveness, an increase in hate crime, and death after death of beloved celebrities, most people cannot WAIT to see the back end of these 365 days.

And yet... and yet... I don't think that we have seen the last of this universal misery. Celebrities seem immune to the inevitability of death, no matter their age, because they become bigger than life in our eyes.  Most that died this year were not considered to be old or in ill health, and many were, if not in their prime, definitely in their renaissance.  So many of them were trend setters or rule defy-ers and in a time that is becoming bleaker and scarier, they seemed like rays of hope that were brutally extinguished by an uncaring god.

So let us mourn in our own ways, let us wallow for a moment in the passing of those that meant the most to us and whose existence the world seems dimmer without. 

But.  BUT.  Let us not grieve indefinitely.  Let us learn from their example and become our own heroes.  Let us defy the rules and set trends.  Let us be fearless and foul mouthed and strange.  Let us be the light in the darkness and move forward in our own dogged determination to Make Things Better.

Find communities to unite with, to fight with, and use your energy, your anger and your grief for positive impacts as much and as often as possible.  That is the only way to fight against the shadows that are looming on the horizon.  That is how goodness and love and light will prevail.


"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness.  I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can.  And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." (Neil Gaiman)

Let the people mourn, please. Let them make gifs and badly-photoshopped memes of remembrance and scatter them across the internet like earth on the grave of a kinder culture.  Something bigger is passing away, and everyone can sense it - not just Bowie and Cohen and Prince and George Michael and Muhammad Ali and Carrie Fisher, but the particular moment they inhabited, a freer time where weird and queer and mad and poor people could actually make art that moved the world.  A time of excess and adventure and experimentation.  That time is over now.  Let the people grieve.  Something enormous is dying and that's enormously sad. Something is starting, too, and right now that's scary as hell. (uncredited)