2016 Sucked! Now That We’ve Gotten That Out Of The Way…

Yeah, 2016 sucked. We lost so many wonderful people while we have been left with so many terrible ones. But as much as these losses have had an impact on me in the moment of their discovery, their long term reach is pretty minimal. I didn’t know Alan Rickman, or Gene Wilder, or Carrie Fisher, or any of the rest of the people we’ve lost. I’ll miss their contributions, the joy they brought to their fans, the beauty and art they created that inspired me.

They won’t carry on forward and create more. But we have a library of wonderful that we can always refer to and that is very important. If, for no other reason, it is a very important reminder that anyone can do something that inspires others and can leave a legacy that will be appreciated long after they are gone. Do you have a legacy? Maybe it’s time to think of what that might be and how you can make it happen.

We’ve lost our country to a foreign backed narcissist and I think that the people who supported him are going to very quickly discover how bad things are going to get for all of us. I am grateful to my friends who are/were supporters for the conversations we are having so that I can learn more, but I do think we’re all in for a lot worse of a ride than we would have been if things had gone the other way. Time will tell.

Regardless of any of that the real question is “what are you going to do about it?” Yes you.

You see right now the temptation is for everyone to withdraw and to do everything they can to protect themselves. But if you recall, that’s pretty much exactly what everyone has been doing for a long time now and it really hasn’t helped. If anything it’s isolated us from each other and made it easier for us to be divided and conquered. Fear drove us apart and made it easier to take us down.

It is when we work together, when we look out for each other, and when we stand up to the things that are wrong that progress is made.

There are plenty of ways that you can do this. All you have to do is pick something and support it. Join the ACLU (I did). Volunteer your time at a shelter. Donate to a cause. Whatever it is, the point is that you are doing something.

That is the point I think I want to make this last day of 2016. Do something. Whatever you can, as much as you can, with whatever you’ve got.

We’ve been devastated by a lot of things this year. We’ve been devastated by people, politics, and problems of society. We’ve been trapped, tricked, and told lies by news and social media. It’s enough to make you want to pull the blankets up over your head and hide.

Hiding didn’t help. It’s time to try something different.

I’ve been thinking about “resolutions”. For starters I don’t believe in them. It seems that few people really make them any more and you hear a lot more about people failing them than you ever hear about people keeping them.

I do believe in goals. I’ve set goals and made them. It’s something to do with the mindset of working my goals.

I’ve set goals for my health. I’ve set goals for my magic. I’ve set these kinds of goals in the past. I usually make them just fine, but it’s time to think about different things as well.

So I have set myself some all knew goals. I want to grow more as a person and the path I see is to reach out much further than I ever have before and embrace an even broader view of the world.

So this is my promise –

2017 will not be a year filled with depression from dying celebrities. I will mourn their loss, but I will celebrate their contributions.

2017 will not be a year filled with political anger. I will do everything I can to stand up for what I believe in but I will not disregard the other side just because it is the other side. I will confront ideas I think are bad or wrong, but not people.

2017 will not be a year filled with hopelessness. No matter what it throws at me I will strive to see things as opportunities to learn and grow instead of excuses to be defeated.

Are these reasonable goals? I don’t know. Will I be able to maintain them? Only if I remember these are the promises I making to myself. I’ll make sure there are ways for me to keep these goals in front of me.

No matter what I urge you to not hide. I urge you to do something, anything, that brings you together with like minded people, actively working to keep people working in positive directions despite anything arrayed against you.

I also urge you to do something that brings you together with people who have different views that you can work with, learn from, and teach too. Because if there is any lesson that needs to be learned more than anything else it’s that bridging the gaps is the only way to beat a system that tries to divide us.

Never give up on yourself, never give up on the people that matter to you, and never give up on the things in this world that need to be defended, protected, and shared with all of us.

We do not get better on our own. We get better with each other.