Dawn of a New Year

Well, that's about all she wrote for 2016, and I'm sure you've noticed as of late that a lot of people are quite happy to see the back of it! And I'll agree, this year has been quite a rough year in general for a variety of different reasons reasons, but hey, at least it wasn't as bad as 1816 or 1347.

The two big reasons that some people are denouncing 2016 as the worst 365-day period in recent history are as follows: one, a lot of celebrities died this year to the point where it doesn't seem all that coincidental anymore, and two, controversial business magnate and political novice Donald J. Trump was elected to have the prestigious responsibility of being president of the United States and a good chunk of the international free world. I'm gonna share a few words about them here, because it would be weird if the fireworks started off heralding 2017 and I still had my Halloween introductory journal up.

With regard to the celebrity deaths, I will say that the amount of famous people kicking it seems to have gone up as of late. I first started noticing it in 2014, and it seems that more and more celebrities have been meeting premature ends more often ever since. However, I'd put it to you that this might have something to do with us being more sharp-eyed as of late - perhaps as a result of earlier tragedies, we've been keeping an eye on how our favorite celebrities are doing so that should someone in the public eye pass on from this earth, be it of natural causes or through some misfortune, we are more likely to notice it and attend to it in a greater deal than we did in previous years. I don't really want to use any examples at the moment in case I cause any distress, but perhaps you can think of one person you've heard of who's died this year that perhaps we wouldn't have paid as much attention to if it happened another year. All this just means that we of the public have become more compassionate towards the stars among us, so take that as a silver lining if you will!

Now, as for Trump being president, this is causing concern because A.) he hasn't had any real experience in being any sort of political leader as all we really knew him for was being the host of The Apprentice, and B.) while he was making his speeches he proposed policies and made statements that - and I'm just gonna lay out all my cards on the table here - were quite hurtful for a large number of different people, whether he realizes this or not. But the biggest worry I have about all this isn't anything about Trump (I'm willing to give him a fair chance), but about whether everyone in America is still going to be able to have a fair say. I'm worried that people will use Trump's victory (or Hillary's loss) as an excuse to make other people feel like their opinion doesn't matter. We need to be able to have different opinions, and we need to be able to share them with everybody or else nothing would be fair and we'd have a real dystopia.

But man, the thing I despise most about 2016 is that this year more than any, we really got a taste of how divided and snappy we've become! We are living in an age of hypersensitivity, where people have become less tolerant of other people's guff to the point where, rather than just quietly having a word about the issues we have with them, we just yell and bawl at them, try and silence their voice and ultimately make them feel like they're worse people than they actually are, and that leads to them lashing out at more people, and it goes in a vicious circle. By closing ourselves off from each other, we become a self-minded, myopic and miserable lot indeed.

So as a final word of wisdom before we kick off with the new year, let me humbly offer some sage advice: in a vitriolic environment where everybody's screaming at each other, joining in on that screaming won't make your point stand out. What will stand out, however, is compassion, kindness and gentle words. Too often we make enemies of people who could just as easily be our friends.

Thanks for another year of fun and thrills everybody, and I leave you with a choice inspirational quote from Bill Vaughan: 'Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to'! Happy 2017, everyone!