It is currently very fashionable to want 2016 to die.
After all, this is the year that so many celebrities drew their last breath.
This, apparently, is shocking. I heard a news commentary suggesting that we are all ‘reeling from the news’ of all these dead stars. Are we so shocked that death visits even the famous and rich?
In other news, people living lives outside of the spotlight have also died.
Apparently people die. And…people are born.
Battles too, are won and battles are lost. Whether on the playground, in board rooms or over international borders, our world is in a constant state of flux.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26GpAc4NdQ8
There is one other constant; our tendency to dig in our heels and hurt others. This, unfortunately, has never been in dispute. There are more refugees in the world at this time than any other period in history. Meanwhile, racism and hatred have been given validation and permission in a Trump-elect world.
But there are other things that happened in 2016.
Joy was also brought into the world. For every vile act performed by some recently emboldened hate group (Alt-right my ass, let us name it for what it is), there were even more community acts of kindness (as seen in this article).
People are rallying together, united with a common goal of furthering connection and countering hatred. We are realizing it is our duty to stand up for those who are vilified.
For those of us who have read our history books, we can see what is coming and it doesn’t look good. But we must also remember that it is up to us to ensure that the light of love triumphs over the dark of hatred. It is incumbent upon each of us to let our goodness shine.
As we so often do at this time of the year, I watched Jimmy Stewart perform in It’s A Wonderful Life. Right on cue, I cried as Harry Bailey realized how many lives he had touched and transformed through his life. What I’d never realized before was that during the filming of that show, James Stewart was in the middle of a crisis about his art and life. He had just returned after twenty months of bombing missions and was suffering with PTSD. He could barely eat and suffered from nightmares and insomnia.
In this Chicago Tribune article we read, “…he (Stewart) was questioning the superficiality of Hollywood and acting in general, and Lionel Barrymore (who plays Mr. Potter) said to him, “So, are you saying it’s more worthwhile to drop bombs on people than to entertain them?”
Jim Stewart made a decision that day and decided that making art was a worthwhile way to spend his life. Because of that decision, millions of viewers have received an annual Christmas message of hope and love. He chose to create art and, by doing so, he created more of what is good and positive in the world.
It stuns me to think about what incredible odds we all face, just to be alive at this exact moment. On top of that gift, we have the wondrous ability to choose love, art and creation or hate, ugliness and destruction. We can choose whether to live in light or add to the darkness in the world.
Each day I can make the decision; love, goodness, art. Each day, through encounters both ‘random’ or decided, I create the world I inhabit. Connection is always within reach.
We make up our reality, one gesture, one act at a time.
As the song says, “We ARE the world.”
So yes, 2016 definitely had its dark moments, yet here we are…still alive, still able to choose, still focused on building a better world, one act of love and creation at a time.
May your 2017 be a blessing to you and to all those you encounter.
Happy New Year!
PS.
As John Cheever said, “I can’t write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss—you can’t do it alone.” So thank you all for your continued support, for reading and sharing my posts and continuing to participate in this particular form of creation.
Because of you I am a writer.
I love this so much, especially the part about Jimmy Stewart. “So, are you saying it’s more worthwhile to drop bombs on people than to entertain them?” Brought me to tears. Happy New Year, Colleen.
Tears, Angie, are always a good thing. My husband teases me about the oxymoronic nature of a ‘good cry’. But I remain steadfast that crying is the correct response to so much in the world.
I have read too, that happy tears have an entirely different composition from sad tears. My spin on that is that we must need to release certain oils, antibodies and enzymes, depending on the situation.
The photographer, Rose-Lynn Fisher, who first studied the microscopic structure of tears said, “Tears are the medium of our most primal language in moments as unrelenting as death, as basic as hunger and as complex as a rite of passage. It’s as though each one of our tears carries a microcosm of the collective human experience, like one drop of an ocean.”
So, as strange as it might sound, I’m very happy for your tears and your shared recognition that art and creation is so much more necessary than ugliness and destruction.
The article I’m referring to about the tear study can be read at:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-microscopic-structures-of-dried-human-tears-180947766/
Colleen, Thank you for all your past blogs and the future ones. I look forward to sharing them.
Yes, life is a precious gift. You should honour it, care for it, love it. There are 2 paths in life – the one is love and the other hate. It is easier to love. We must remember that we are totally dispensable, what make us human is our capacity to love. So love, love and love.
Happy New Year to you and Kevin.
(Love the song. Yes we are indeed the world.)
Thank you for your continued support and always thoughtful feedback and comments.
I like how you put that, so yes, ‘let us honour, care and love’ for ourselves and for each other.
Love is always the answer. May 2017 be filled with health and happiness. All the best Catherine!
Thank you for the reminder. Yes, indeed – we can choose. And with a new year, there is always a feeling that we are given another new chance to choose better. Be better. A new year, with its clean slate, is a gift. I, for one, hope that I can fill the pages with more love and more art. And more connections.
Happy New Year to you and yours. Bring it on, 2017!
Hi Gwen. It’s funny. We all know we could pick any date to start again, but there is something about doing this collectively that gives it more power. It really does feel like a fresh chance to ‘…choose better. Be better’.
I’m sure we will both be filling our pages with more love, more art and more connections. So glad our paths crossed so long ago.
Wishing you a happy heartfelt 2017! And may it be full of acts of kindness and love. Moi! Moi! (Those mean air kisses.)
Thank you for the air kisses. Clearly you’ve spent a lot of time in Paris! Hope your 2017 is also full of Moi! Moi! All the Best 🙂
Thank you, Colleen, for this and your last few posts. Though I didn’t take time to comment during the whirl that was, I’m on pause with a certain French widow–Veuve Clicquot–this evening and hours of music and candlelight to savour along with the bubbles. Time to correct the oversight.
This morning I read another essay/blog post that I thought I’d share. Forget what we have long heard about Social Darwinism, this is an idea (from a surprising source) of Social Compassion. Apropos. Happy New Year!
https://medium.com/@Vishen/why-2017-and-every-year-forward-will-just-get-better-and-better-for-humanity-based-on-a-95932b7b4c7a#.y5q7y9uyy
Lynda. I love that you’re hanging out with a lovely French widow. Isn’t it wonderful how she can still remain bubbly given her circumstances?
Thanks for commenting and the link. I loved reading what it says about compassion and our continued evolution; such a hopeful note from such an interesting source.
Happy New Year to you!