Not Your Average Trip Around the Sun

Over the years I’ve written several year-in-review posts the last week in December and I had planned to do something different this year…but then 2016 happened. This has been a hell of a year for the world, the country and, more importantly, for me.

I’ve seen some pretty eventful and tumultuous years come and go over my brief 59-year ride on this planet. I remember 1969 was a wild and eventful year; Richard Nixon became President, the Beatles officially broke up, Mel Brooks won an Oscar, Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon and, even more unlikely, the NY Jets won the Super bowl and the NY Mets won the World Series (both beating teams from Baltimore). I was only 12 at the time but even I knew it was a year for the ages…the Mets winning the World Series, what could be crazier than that?

Now 2016 has happened and I’m not sure how to feel about it. It’s been a year of amazing world events, tragic loss, indescribable happiness and just plain weird and bizarre happenings…and that’s just in my family. We lost dear loved ones, visited ancient wonders of the world, gained a perfect new grandson, survived earthquakes on two continents, almost screwed up my marriage (again) and finally found my way home. Damn…I’m exhausted after writing that and there’s still a few days left in this year!

The rest of the world had a pretty crazy year as well, a year that easily ranks up there with 1969 as one I think most of us will remember.

In 2016 athletes from the US dominated the Summer Olympic games winning more 120 medals, almost doubling the count from our closest competitor. I know I’ll never forget the drama and excitement of watching the athleticism of the world’s best Ping-Pong players and archery teams laying it all on the line for their countries. Riveting stuff! Oh yeah, and Ryan Lochte proved what we’ve all suspected for years; not all lying entitled rich pricks are politician...it turns out some are athletes too!

It seems like the planet itself has been in a state of unrest throughout 2016, there have been almost 120 separate earthquakes with a magnitude of at least 6.0 so far this year! To quote Jerry Lee Lewis (and I so rarely get a chance to quote Jerry Lee Lewis), “There’s a whole lot of shakin’ going on!” From earthquakes in Oklahoma to snow in the Sahara, this hasn’t been your average trip around the sun for Mother Earth.

No discussion of 2016 would be complete without talking about the long and growing list of notable people who passed away this year. Where do I begin? We lost Alan Rickman who famously played Hans Gruber in Die Hard (my favorite Christmas movie). The dad from Growing Pains (Alan Thicke) and the mom from the Brady Bunch (Florence Henderson), Ron Glass and Abe Vigoda from Barney Miller all died this year; it was a rough year for actors from the TV shows of my youth.

Musicians didn’t fare much better losing such names as Merle Haggard, Prince (and with him the artist formerly known as Prince…I guess), Davis Bowie, Maurice White, 2/3 of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Leonard Cohen. No matter what kind of music you like, chances are that 2016 claimed one of your favorites.

For those who read the news or care about history, former First Lady Nancy Reagan, Justice Antonin Scalia and Nobel Prize winner Shimon Peres all passed this year. For those who read the sports page, we lost Gordie Howe, Arnold Palmer and Mohammad Ali, three men who were truly the greatest of their time.

Sadly we lost John Glenn, my childhood hero and a great American. I could go on and on; speaking for myself, I’ll miss Gene Wilder, Joe Garagiola, Harper Lee, George Kennedy and Garry Marshall a lot more than I will miss 2016. The world just seems a bit smaller and less impressive to me now.

On a lighter note the remake of The Magnificent Seven came out in 2016 and any year that produces a decent western can’t be all bad. We can’t forget that the Cubs won the World Series for the first time in over a hundred years…take that 1969!

Oh, and we had a wild and crazy election this year and against all odds we decided to elect Donald J Trump to be our next president. Trump is the first president elected in my lifetime who is not a politician, lawyer or particularly scholarly. He will, however, go down in history as the first human ever to be both a member of the professional wrestling hall of fame and the leader of the free world! Suck it 1969, you can’t compete with that!

Way too much terrorism and public ugliness happened in 2016 for me to list here even if I was inclined to, which I am not. I’m a humorist, that’s not my beat but suffice it to say that as a species, the human race has had better years.

As I look back on the wild ride that has been 2016 I kind of want to say, “Wait….what?” It all went by so fast and I can’t help but think of the words Glenn Frey (another music great to pass away this year) sang in an anthem from my misspent youth, “Lighten up while you still can, don’t even try to understand. Just find a place to make your stand and take it easy.”

So, Happy New Year…and take it easy.