Farewell 2016

I can tell when it is approaching the end of the year, as my travelling times to and from work begin to get shorter. The distance remains the same. However, instead of well over an hour, it starts dropping to below the hour from door to door. That makes for a good time of year for me. The start to the day is far less stressful. It becomes a little joyful instead.

It is a time for joy of course.

Though it hasn’t always been a joyful year, has it.

2016 has seen the passing of some iconic people. People who have either changed the culture of their times, or created a whole new aspect of culture. Notably, I would argue, David bowie fits the later.

So, a time of recollection. It’s difficult when the cultural reference points of your existence begin to crumble and fall. Being young prevents this, in most cases, but as you get older, so they get older and then it will happen. Doesn’t make it any easier though. You spend a lifetime submersing yourself in their creativity and then the sudden realization that there is to be no more creativity. That’s it. It’s all gone. No more. And then what do you do?

I remember the first huge impact when my favourite author David Gemmell died. I was heartbroken because of what his books had given to me, taught me. Yet, I was also bereft knowing that, that was it. No more David Gemmell books, ever. What had become an almost annual ritual of seeing his new hardback on the shelf and then buying the book and then spending the day reading the book from start to finish, was over. It would never happen again. Then when Terry Pratchett died, a double whammy. I still miss the books they could have written but never did. That saddens me.

And that’s the great loss.

That loss of excitement in anticipation has gone.

The ritual of buying and then enjoying someone’s creativity.

The knowledge that another item will soon come that you can enjoy and repeat the above two lines.

Be it music, books, art, etc…Creativity is so crucially important both individually and in a social context. Can you imagine a society that does not have art? What kind of Orwellian nightmare would that be?

Farewell then, 2016. You have been an unmerciful year to me. Though I have the CD’s and the books that have been made. You have, ultimately, denied me the CD’s and books that were to be made.