Much of 2016 felt like struggling to cut an overripe tomato with a blunt knife. A year of sequential events that appeared too chaotic and overwhelming to manage. It was messy, exhausting and sometimes more frustrating than not.
It’s easier to personify, vilify and blame a pocket of time than to accept that a lot of bad things happen in the world. For being just a regular calendar year, 2016 did its best to become a super villain. I let myself get trapped in that cycle of thinking because blaming time for being wicked and evil was easier than admitting complicity for our silence and inaction.
Plus, it made it easier to pretend that 2017 will magically be much better.
But it wasn’t all bad. A lot of beautiful things happened this year. So out of self/sanity preservation I must re-frame my focus from the many dreadful things that left me spinning onto some of the good.
This is my list of wonderful events in 2016. (In no special order, except for #1)
1. Averie James Craig was born
I could stop my list here because my heart overflowed the first time I saw her face.
2. Tiny is the new HUGE
Data storage made a huge leap by becoming tiny. If we humans are intent on making and leaving positive discoveries on this earth, we need to record them and withstand time. The 5D Nano storage could record and store all of human history.
3. BORF BORF Meme
This absurd meme made my life immeasurably more entertaining in so many ways. If I had a dollar for every time I said “Y r u so SMOL” to our newborn baby I could retire on a mega-yacht.
4. Living on MARS is the new black
Further human space exploration is one step closer to reality. Space is getting less spacey thanks to rocket launch and landing advances from SpaceX.
5. Science moved us. (Literally.)
A device helped a paralyzed man move his hand.
Stem cells helped stroke patients walk
6. Pet rocks of the future
Scientists turned carbon emissions into solid rock.
7. Cancer got a kick in the stupid cancer face
Cancer is a jerk. Discoveries towards conquering this mouth breather of a disease are a plus for humanity.
8. I discovered coffee. And it is good.
My new-found love affair with coffee began in May 2016. My daughter was born in April 2016. A coincidence? Nope, newborn babies are sleep deprivation machines and coffee can make you seem like a human when you are down to your last brain cell. I took 37 years to realize that coffee was syrup for the soul.
Turns out I am not alone, science thinks coffee is pretty jazzy too.
Dementia hates coffee
9. Raindrops keep falling….
Chinese scientists discovered a way to create electricity when it rains.
10. Protection for the brains!
Our noggins are safer and way cooler with these really cool and innovative folding bike helmets. Protect the brains, friends.
ECO Helmet
Morpher Folding Helmet
https://youtu.be/oYI6UkfQwMw
11. We love you sunshine. Never die.
Solar Impulse was the first solar-powered plane to fly around the world. Somewhere in the universe Amelia Earhart is vibrating with joy.
SolarCity is forging the way forward towards cleaner, renewable consumer energy consumption.
12. It is Ok to say you are not ok.
I made myself vulnerable by talking about my struggles with anxiety and got the most loving responses and supportive feedback. Because we are not alone and collectively we struggle in different ways.
13. More Data Less Energy
Researchers are working to transfer more date using less energy. How else are we going to keep up with our video content rich social media addictions? 
14. Better Shelter
UNHCR and IKEA Foundation provide alternative shelters to test for refugees and people in disaster areas. Providing more dignity in emergency housing and a small sense of normality in traumatic circumstances.
Fortunately they are not as difficult to build as some IKEA furniture.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. 2016 brought so many other amazing developments. Despite everything that went wrong I am optimistic that the collective conversations ignited this year on climate change and politics will keep rolling on to build even more passionate momentum. The only energy each of us can harness for change is in ourselves. Nothing good ever came from waiting for someone else to fix what grieves us.
If nothing else 2016 has taught me that life is brittle and brief. So we can either sit back and continue to blame time for things that will inevitably go wrong in 2017, or get up, get out, stand up and be the change we want to see.
I will choose action over blame.
I will not give up.
I will stop reading the comment sections.
I will stop fucking complaining. (Including complaining about complaining.)
I will approach the coming year as pockets of time within days. Moments instead of an unmanageable, unfixable whole.
Also, let’s stop filling the oceans with tiny pieces of plastic, because that is bullshit.
3 Comments
I am amazed that you can know all this wonderful stuff and delighted you have chosen to pass it on . But most of all I am sooooooo proud of U
Keep on keeping on .. love yuh
I also need to be more positive! Thank you sir paving the way
Beautiful! Wonderful! Love the way you write! Happy New Year!