Thursday, December 31, 2015

Roll with it we shall



    2015 sort of blew, didn't it? Between Donald Trump and the Syrian refugees, Bruce Rauner shutting down Illinois and Chicago dripping blood. I can't put a good spin on it and wouldn't be so dumb as to try. 
   But it's over now. 
   And at least 2015's suckiness was limited to a city, state and national scale. Close to home, on the micro-local scale, all hums along. The boys thrive in college; work endures, the wife and I enjoy our frequently empty nest. We have much to be grateful for and are, every day.    
     Though it can be hard to be content with our own little garden when the clouds gather and half the country seems to have lost its mind, in harmony with 3/4 of the world.  Not only did 2015 blow, but the prospects for a non-sucky 2016 don't seem so hot either.
    Which leaves us with ... what? Hope, I guess. Hope is the last coin in your pocket when you've spent everything else. Hope is faith when belief has drained away and you figure things have got to get better because the thought of them getting worse is just unimaginable.
     Maybe not. Maybe not so unimaginable. Maybe they will get worse. President-elect Trump, lower lip pouting out like Il Duce, pondering on his throne whether his first act on Jan. 20, 2017 will be to deport all Mexicans or bar all Muslims. 
    Nah, can't happen. Can't can't can't. As Nate Silver said, neither party has nominated a candidate as unfit as Donald Trump in more than a century. They won't start now. 
    And if they do, well, as the poet Thomas Campbell writes, "To bear is to conquer fate."     
     Meaning, whatever life serves isn't so bad if you roll with it. 
     So roll with it we shall. Hope you're rolling now, rocking and rolling, out having fun. We'll be joining you in a bit, going over to friends to have fun, or what fun we can, and that should perk things up. 
     Happy New Year. Let's grab the wheel in 2016 and try to turn this bus into a better direction.  Somebody has to.
  

8 comments:

  1. I hope us sane folk can wrest that wheel away from the looneybins that have been doing the driving of late!

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  2. It seems to be the last call for extremists, whether they be radical Muslims, white supremacists, or the ultra rich. I can't get excited or worried about any of them. I am curious about how this all works out, with a sideline focused on the NRA. Will their claim that guns belong to all, the more the merrier, finally hit a wall? I do believe sanity will return after the primaries, and I trust Nate Silver. He's damn good at predicting.

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  3. *laugh* Thanks to those clowns in that Texas high school this year, and their Keystone Kops, I look at that photo and think, "It's a wall of bombs!"

    It'll be nice if you can find a better direction to steer the bus into. But I wouldn't put money on 2016 being any better than '15. After all, the people with mountains of it are the ones driving, aren't they? XD

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  4. Where's the Wall of Clocks that's all set to the same time?
    It's going to be a new year in two hours, but not a happy one, not with the losers & crackpots running our city, county, state & federal governments & the even worse people that want to take over!

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    1. I'm guessing it's the clock factory at the Chicago Lighthouse. I remember an earlier column (maybe this year?).

      Happy New Year to all and sundry! Having gone out for a lovely dinner, I'm back home where it's safe for the rest of the evening. ;)

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    2. Yep, it's The Lighthouse!

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  5. "Hope makes a fine breakfast but a poor supper. " Francis Bacon

    We'll see, wont we.

    Tom Evans

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  6. You are speaking my thoughts. Grateful for so much and holding down a frequently empty nest. Love the observations about hope from you and Francis/Tom. Hope is not a plan.

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