Unlikely Wins, Implausible Losses, and a New Year Comes

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” – Charles Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities” 


Nothing truer could be said about the year 2016. The year 2016 will go down in history as one of the best and worst years of my life for a number of reasons. The triumph of Trump, the loss of Hillary, the epoch of the Chicago Cubs victory, the relevance of third parties, the march of liberty, the total reshaping of the two-major parties, the unsheathing of America’s cultural and spiritual underbelly, served up a gumbo of wonderment and bewilderment in so many ways.

Some friends were lost to death. Some lost to life. A tiny few relationships were ended, a plethora of new ones established. The truth, contrary to the biblical saw, didn’t set people free as much as it set them afire with angst, uncertainty, fear, and feelings of resignation, jubilation, and uncertainty. Fantasies were cast aside as useless fables in the dark age of “fake” news, where fabricated reality is real and realism is counterfeit. It’s an upside down world in the age of cultural and patriotic dementia.

The coming year pleads to be hopeful that a new president isn’t as bad as advertised; that seething and disgraced losers of 2016 will be pleasantly startled that fears were unjustified; that two-party tribalism will subside into a sea of cooperation. Perhaps these pleadings are hopeless? Maybe not.

Either way, I enter a new year with the knowledge that I have only so many of these thresholds to cross before no more will be forthcoming. Death will come soon enough without worry, fret, or denial. Forward I will go into the coming year looking for authentic and valuable answers, evolution of progress, expansion of hope, intertwined in the clutch of change, while releasing the deprivation, failure and sadness of the past.

Eternity awaits and I know not when my journey will come to an end.  May I be running forward when it does.

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