Acquiring the Words: December 2016

So, 2016… it’s certainly been a year. So many beloved icons taken too soon, but you don’t need me to recount them here. You know who they are, and some of them probably hit you hard, and some probably didn’t.

Then of course there was the US political circus we all watched unfold. I don’t need to recount the many blunders and jaw dropping moments that we slowly came to see as par for the course. I will say this to those who say, “Well that’s democracy – you don’t get to cry because the other side won.” It’s not that the so called political ‘other side’ won. While I don’t relate to most right wing policy, as I feel it is callous and primarily serves those who need the least, I agree that that’s how democracy works – we all have a voice – and I believe in that. What I will say is this – it’s not about right versus left, it’s about the normalization of fear and hatred. It’s about the terrifying number of people that don’t care if the leader one of the most powerful countries on earth is a self-proclaimed sexual abuser, racist and homophobe. You don’t get to support a man who shits all over human rights, and then tell those of us whose rights are in danger to stop crying about it. I will cry about it, I have cried about it – because even though I’m Canadian, I know that culture is bigger than our borders, and I know that when we overlook things like each other’s basic human rights we are all less safe – that I am even less likely to be protected by the law if I am raped, that it will be that much harder to protect my daughter from an entitled boy who sees her body as his conquest or to teach my son not to be the guy who sees someone else’s daughter that way. And the only thing that gives me hope through all of this is the number of people who have spoken out to say that they know all this is unacceptable – that they don’t want to live in a world where any of this is ‘ok’. At the end of the day I have to hope that that will matter more.

So 2016, the year the world seems to have gone up in flames – or perhaps more accurately, the year that the slow burn became a bonfire… but for me personally it has been a great year. I was reminded of that when I looked back through my photos of 2016… photos that recount as happy a life as any one person can ask for.
Here’s my 2016 in photos – because I’m self-indulgent, and when I’m tempted to fall into the trap of believing the world is shit, these are my reminders that it really isn’t.

Seeing old friends, who I miss dearly