2016: The Easy Story
According to popular narrative, 2016 was a crappy year. In politics, you had Brexit and Trump. In celebrity deaths you had David Bowie, Muhammed Ali, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, George Michael, Prince, Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder… There were 130 of them that died in 2016 – far too many to mention here. Racism, isolation and hate are all on the rise. We are headed toward an apocalypse, and there aren’t any brakes anymore.
However, that’s the easy story. It’s easy to write how terrible things are because we can all agree on things that are terrible. As much as death is a part of life, it is still terrible. The end of the world is terrible. Hate is terrible. Racism is terrible – it’s so terrible that even the KKK and it’s ilk have come up with an alternative way to describe themselves. Isolation is terrible, even if we delude ourselves into thinking that it is good; people aren’t meant to be alone.
So the media picks up on all of these terrible stories, rolls them into a ball and sells them to you to reinforce that 2016 was indeed a terrible year. Maybe it was at a macro level. However, most of us don’t live on that level. Most of us live in our cities and our towns where these things only affect us mentally without perceptibly moving the needle in our paychecks or our daily relationships. If you throw out the media, social and otherwise, and truly look at your life, I am going to guess 2016 was a better year than you think.
For me personally, I got married to a beautiful woman who only wants me to be me. She doesn’t care about my height, my age or the fact that as a writer, I do not make enough to support buying a coffee a month. She just wants me to write. I have lived in Russia, Malta and the U.S. I have honed my archery skills and got my Masters in Creativity and Innovation while avoiding having a phone of any type. I haven’t been threatened with hunger and only had one major illness, which didn’t require me to go to the hospital.
Yes, the airlines lost my luggage and caused me to miss a crucial flight while not reimbursing me for anything, yet. But all in all, this has been a pretty good year for me.
I can’t say for certain that you had a better year than you think, but if you have a smart phone with Internet access, if you were able to hold a job, if the only time you went hungry was because you forgot to eat, if you didn’t spend any time in a hospital or morgue, chances are you had a pretty decent year, too. Of course, life has its ups and downs, and maybe everything didn’t go your way. The struggle is real.
But focusing on the negative narrative that sells news and puts eyes on the page, doesn’t help your year to be better. Sure, it makes for an easy laugh. It makes for good theatrics, but life is about perception. Look at all the blessings you have had throughout 2016. See for yourself if you have had a personally good year.
Of course, that doesn’t make it any less fun to jump on the bandwagon and give 2016 the bird as it ends, but it does help put a little perspective on the whole year. Don’t let the popular narrative fool you into believing something that wasn’t true for you. Don’t fall for the easy story. And if 2016 was a terrible year for you, I’m sorry. May 2017 be the best year ever.
However, that’s the easy story. It’s easy to write how terrible things are because we can all agree on things that are terrible. As much as death is a part of life, it is still terrible. The end of the world is terrible. Hate is terrible. Racism is terrible – it’s so terrible that even the KKK and it’s ilk have come up with an alternative way to describe themselves. Isolation is terrible, even if we delude ourselves into thinking that it is good; people aren’t meant to be alone.
So the media picks up on all of these terrible stories, rolls them into a ball and sells them to you to reinforce that 2016 was indeed a terrible year. Maybe it was at a macro level. However, most of us don’t live on that level. Most of us live in our cities and our towns where these things only affect us mentally without perceptibly moving the needle in our paychecks or our daily relationships. If you throw out the media, social and otherwise, and truly look at your life, I am going to guess 2016 was a better year than you think.
For me personally, I got married to a beautiful woman who only wants me to be me. She doesn’t care about my height, my age or the fact that as a writer, I do not make enough to support buying a coffee a month. She just wants me to write. I have lived in Russia, Malta and the U.S. I have honed my archery skills and got my Masters in Creativity and Innovation while avoiding having a phone of any type. I haven’t been threatened with hunger and only had one major illness, which didn’t require me to go to the hospital.
Yes, the airlines lost my luggage and caused me to miss a crucial flight while not reimbursing me for anything, yet. But all in all, this has been a pretty good year for me.
I can’t say for certain that you had a better year than you think, but if you have a smart phone with Internet access, if you were able to hold a job, if the only time you went hungry was because you forgot to eat, if you didn’t spend any time in a hospital or morgue, chances are you had a pretty decent year, too. Of course, life has its ups and downs, and maybe everything didn’t go your way. The struggle is real.
But focusing on the negative narrative that sells news and puts eyes on the page, doesn’t help your year to be better. Sure, it makes for an easy laugh. It makes for good theatrics, but life is about perception. Look at all the blessings you have had throughout 2016. See for yourself if you have had a personally good year.
Of course, that doesn’t make it any less fun to jump on the bandwagon and give 2016 the bird as it ends, but it does help put a little perspective on the whole year. Don’t let the popular narrative fool you into believing something that wasn’t true for you. Don’t fall for the easy story. And if 2016 was a terrible year for you, I’m sorry. May 2017 be the best year ever.