Do you ever get that feeling towards the end of a year that "next year" might hopefully be better than the one you just had? Its that little twink of optimism that somehow things might just be a little easier with the arrival of a brand new year. And sometimes, well, it just seems that things couldn't get any worse than they already may have been, if indeed you've had one of those years you'd rather put behind you.
Then of course, things DO get worse. The problems of a bad year that you've just escaped might pale in comparison when... and if... you DO manage to survive and scrape through another year!
As I wander through life I seem to discover my sense of mortality ever more, every year. I get a bit reflective these days, usually spending a little time over Christmas quietly wishing for a little peace and happiness for my friends and family. That normally involves thinking about things like good health, financial prosperity and sustainability without struggle and hoping that it might flow by all our respective doors. It also means in a purely altruistic sense that I yearn for a general relaxed progression through all our lives that derives, with any luck, from providence and wisdom.
But man, oh man, despite my silly season best wishes and visualisations of a perfect set of conditions that we might all share, 2011 did not start well!!
On a personal note, my decline into an impressive sample of human frailty has tried to step up a notch as we enter this fresh start to a new year. Without the boring details and the self obsessed whimpering of some piteous individuals, suffice it to say that when I saw my doctor at the start of the year and he looked me up and down, he said "its gonna rain". Alas, what the quack actually meant is "its gonna pour" and things have, accordingly, been turning to cyclone blown custard ever since. Yep, its pretty clear that whoever was listening "upstairs" when I mumbled away those karmic good intentions and desire for good health at the end of last year was more interested in planning their own Deity Holiday than entertain my amusing wants for a simpler, healthier year!
And on a national level, what the hell has Queensland (Australia) done to deserve not only record breaking once in a 100 year flooding, only then to find Cyclone Yasi rounding all Queenslanders up like a ravenous dog? I don't think there were too many people in Australia who could ever believe what was happening to our northerly tropical neighbours. There was certainly such widespread destruction and it is without precedent in this country's short history. Even the many overseas visitors I get to talk to through my job were just awestruck by the savage power unleashed by Australia's nature, washing away lives and ruining years and years of toil.... and many of them had already witnessed for themselves the extreme weather events that Europe has endured this winter.
Then of course, we've had major flooding in parts of NSW and to our south, in Victoria. But we'd also be remiss to leave Western Australia out of all this misery; around 70 homes and counting have been completely destroyed by wildly out of control bushfires around Perth, one of which was allegedly started by just one man using his angle grinder on a Total Fire Ban day. Some mothers do raise unintelligent children who never seem to learn, even as grown adults!
Sigh....
And with all the recent bad news, if you haven't felt tempted by now to either cut your own wrists, use prescription antidepressants or just bury your head into your hands, spare a moment for all that has been happening around the globe. Egypt is is in political and social turmoil, the two Korea's are still making the world very, very nervous and freedom of speech man-of-the-moment Julian Assange is still being pursued relentlessly for daring to make people (and countries) accountable for their actions. But why go on? Is it all just more doom and gloom as our little ant colony here on Planet Earth heats up and threatens to swallow everything we rely on for sustainable life? At times,we are all so complacent and self interested that it seems we couldn't organise a piss up at a brewery even if we were paid to.
Harsh?
Yep, in fact, I'm being overly harsh.
What has really fascinated me as the early weeks of this year have rolled by is that when the going gets tough, some people are more than capable of getting going. Witness the people of Queensland. Night after night during recent televised coverage of the floods and cyclone, there was the same persistent resilience being demonstrated by a growing tide of people who had lost everything. No matter what they had endured, no matter how hard or long it would be to recover, they decided that THEY WOULD endure!
Despite our human frailty, regardless of our fallibility and apparent inability to get it right most of the time, here were these Queenslanders, backs up against the wall, but defiantly determined that even without a single possession left to their name, they WOULD start again.
And then came the same news from those devastated by fire and flood in other areas of Australia. And lo and behold, through the ponderings of social networking media like Twitter and Facebook, we've even started to see the same bull headed determination from people in places like Egypt, where despite the odds, people ARE standing up and becoming united.
How do they do it, after all that they've been through?
We're a funny breed us humans. When you start to lose faith in your own human-ness and humanity as a whole, its hard to believe that large populations can band together, fight their enemy... whether it be natural or armed forces.... and rise amongst the tyranny of complacency. If THAT doesn't make you believe that you should NEVER give up on yourself or fellow man, then you really should be thinking hard, again.
As I sit and reflect on all that happened throughout the start of this year, I am sharply reminded that a lot of the time when we learn about something bad, or hear news that we'd prefer not to be hearing, it can be a real blessing in disguise. Without challenges, in the absence of highs and lows, life would indeed become boring. Its only when we learn to recognise that good things CAN and DO arise from bad things that it helps to shape our optimism for the future.
As the line from the movie by Dino De Laurentis said "without change, something sleeps within us. Let the sleeper awaken!" (Dune).
Whatever lies ahead, it will be just fine. Just walk on in to those waves of change and keep faith. I've been energised and humbled by the courage of people who in every right could be excused for giving up, and as such, I think its our obligation to be inspired to get up again, no matter how hard we might get knocked down.
Keep the smile on your dial dear bloggers!
Catchya's soon
Hodgie
all text and pics copyright of mark hodges 2011
