2016 – Year's End

I’ve done year-end wrap ups since practically the beginning of Tell Me A Story. There’ve been four this-was-the-year-that-was editions. 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 – which, by the by, was the year in rants. There was also a best of collection of sunrises.

This year? Meh, this was the year that The Amazing Bob died (twice even!). I don’t feel very Anno Wind Up-y. This was a year of devastation and not just for me.

Bowie kicked the bucket on TAB’s final birthday – January 10th. Alan Rickman on the 14th of that first month. Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire croaked on February 3rd. Like TAB, he was 74. Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer signed off in March. Prince left us in April. Muhammad Ali, also 74, ceased with the floating like a butterfly action in June. Gene Wilder died in August, W.P. Kinsella in September, Leonard Cohen and Leon Russell in November. This last month of 2016 Greg Lake, founder of two of my fave bands – King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, stepped out of the airlock. Carrie Fisher, whose books I always bought in hardcover – just could NOT wait to read her wit, her great tales – checked out on the 27th. Her mother sang her last show tune the very next day. On that, all I can say is that I hope Todd Fisher, like me, is surrounded by wonderful supportive friends.

Oh yeah, and this was also the year that the electoral college shafted us. Again but a thousand times worse.

I have very little hope for this new year BUT I plan to fight like hell. I joined Organizing for Action. I’ve been giving to the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. I’ve written to my congresscritters and I’ll keep looking for new ways that I can work toward averting the coming doom.

So then, I’m not in a big Happy Joy, Joy New Year mood. Maybe reality will surprise me and the world won’t blow up on January 21st. Maybe I’ll actually find a way to survive losing the center of my universe. Will I ever laugh again in this post-TAB life? I betcha I will.