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"work", 'Murica, 2016, Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher, celebrities who made an impression, celebrity crushes, David Bowie, fish tank, hiking, insanity, Leonard Cohen, local parks, New Year, pet parents, travel, Trump, walls
Many have said that 2016 was a shitty year. In terms of celebrity deaths and US politics, I can honestly concur.
We lost some bright lights this year. Some bright, formative influences on my childhood and the adult I became. David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Prince, George Michael, Gene Wilder, Leonard Cohen, Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. (And so many of them so shortly after Robin Williams and Leonard Nimoy.) All of them had some part in my popular culture formation. And then there were others; Elie Weisel, Fidel Castro, Richard Adams, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Alan Thicke, Ron Glass, Florence Henderson, Ursula Franklin etc, etc who nevertheless helped shape the fabric of the world that shaped me – and others of my generation. This is why I think the year felt like such a blow: our childhoods are starting to fray into the electric threads of memory and nostalgia.
And then the perpetual stress of the US election bombarding us from TV and internet feeds, only to have the worst possible result at the end of it all was depressing, if not downright frightening. ‘Murica has elected a TV repairman as a brain surgeon believing that the skills are similar and therefore transferable. (I suppose this is what happens when you think a country should be run like a business, forgetting that it’s primary purpose isn’t to make money. But the idiocies of capitalism are the contents of another rant.) Some ask me why I give a crap what happens south of the border, but don’t forget – what happens to our closest neighbour affects us because we’re inexorably tied by trade, by borders and by history. Talk of walls, terrorism and sheer stupidity in the White House (as evidenced by the loose-cannon tweeting by The Toupeed One) is enough to set anyone’s teeth on edge. I, for one, am going to miss The Obamas.
But.
2016 wasn’t all bad. J and I had a bunch of adventures on the island, exploring parks and trails from here to Jordan River, Lake Cowichan and lots of places in between. We did a lot of things we hadn’t done before, including attending a monster truck rally. We also gardened for the first time in a rental plot in a local community garden. We ate a lot of our own home-grown vegetables which was amazing. I’d missed home grown veggies for a while, so our accomplishment, as total garden-noobs was fantastic.We also got a fish tank, which is something I had never had before. Fish are not as easy to care for as one might imagine, but their little colourful lives are worth it. And yes – they do have personalities.
I also changed jobs after five years at my previous place of employment. A step up in responsibility and income. While I miss some of the coworkers, I do not miss the endless cycles of stupidity – or the fact that I had solutions that no one would take seriously. It was stressful and futile – and while I enjoyed the actual work, there was a limit to my patience and sanity.
So while the year has been characterized as pretty terrible, take time to highlight the positives in your year and cherish them all the more. Happy New Year, friends.
Within the space of a week, two more of my nerd icons have passed on. David Bowie, and Alan Rickman, both men of incredible talent and charisma.Both succumbed to the Cancer at the age of 69.
I didn’t write about how the death of Robin Williams affected me. It was unexpected and took quite some time to sink in and by the time it did, many people had already said many of the same things I’d been thinking. He was an amazing and troubled man who gave the gift of laughter to so many people in his lifetime. As legacies go, I feel that is a fine and admirable one. But his death was a loss on a personal level too. So many of his shows and movies shaped a part of my childhood that watching any of them is like taking a trip down memory lane. So it was like losing a friend and I know I am not the only one who felt that way.
Yesterday, on learning of Leonard Nimoy’s death, I felt the same kind of loss. Where Robin Williams had brought tears and laughter into our living rooms, Nimoy brought science – and acceptance. Star Trek, in all it’s incarnations has tackled difficult subjects: slavery, equality, politics and most of all, the power of empathy and humanity. (I mean, Star Trek was the first show to televise an interracial kiss!) But it may not have worked out what way if it weren’t for Nimoy and the chemistry between he and the rest of the crew – especially Shatner. Their friendship became legendary and paved the way for many future science fiction relationships. Spock’s Vulcan nature was of no consequence to Kirk, but his struggle to exist in two worlds was – as it was for us, the audience. “You have been, and always will be, my friend.”
And now 
