Being Thankful for 2016

Towards the end of last year - there seemed to be more than usual the number of Facebook posts that  grieved for the passing year. There was a lot to be concerned about.  It was the warmest year on record, both the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps are getting smaller and the nations of the world don't seem to be particularly interested in aggressively taking steps to reduce climate change .  A lot of people died in 2016: there were the thousands of refugees who died trying to escape their worn torn countries, there were millions (yes literally millions) of people, many of them children, who died because of malnutrition or polluted water, there were hundreds of people killed by guns in the USA, western countries became more and more xenophobic  and the gap between the richest and the poorest in almost every country became even larger.  From that perspective one can understand why some people feel thankful that we are done with 2016 and that 2017 has to be better.

But that is not why people were complaining about 2016. They seemed to be upset that a seemingly large number of famous people died  in 2016,  and of course Trump was elected as the president of the USA.

Those people need to get a new perspective on what is important in life. It is true that the list of who died in 2016 and who had some level of fame is long.  But most of us only had a passing awareness of who the people were. Quite frankly, I would not have recognized most of the people who died even if they had banged on my door; I certainly would not have recognized their work. There are exceptions such as Leonard Cohen or Edward Albee whose works I knew well, but when I look at the lists of who died - there are a lot of names I had forgotten about if I even knew them  in the first place.  I would guess that many of us lost someone this year that we miss daily - not because they were famous, but because we cared about them and their lives.

While there are some legitimate reasons to be concerned about Donald Trump's election - I remain unconvinced that those reasons are sufficient to whine about a whole year.

One the other hand - for me there was a lot to celebrate in 2016. I moved almost 5,000 kilometres to start a new life in BC, I got to see both of my kids on their birthdays as well as seeing all four of my grandchildren on their birthdays; I had a relatively good year selling my weaving at local markets, I met lots of new people and I started to be engaged with my community as a volunteer. I got to camping with my Rainbow family in a beautiful part of  BC, attend a lovely folk festival and eat grapes harvested from my arbour.  I have remained reasonably healthy, I have sufficient funds to eat and to travel to see my family and perhaps most important of all - I have a family who even on their and my worst days - accept and support me in my life choices.

Is life perfect? Of course not but it is pretty damn close.  And while I want the world to be a better place, I want people to stop dying for stupid reasons that we could prevent , I want us to stop wasting the world's resources and lord knows I wish the USA would have elected someone who had some brains - all I can do is give money to those who try to help, be kind to my neighbours and love my family. I need to be grateful what I have as opposed to complaining what I have lost.