Here we go again. The end of a year. The beginning of a new one.
As I get older, I begin to discover that we seem to live the same day over and over again. Bill Murray in GROUNDHOG DAY is..well...us! We are Bill Murray.
We are all in the same story. We are all in the same loop. Spinning in infinity. Over and over again. Or at least until the brain, heart, and mind give out and we travel to that other side. Whatever that other side may be. IF that other say may even be there. Christopher Hitchens left our world this year, and he sure as heck didn't believe in a God or a Satan. So if he is somewhere now after life, I wish he'd come back to say he was wrong. Hell, I wish he'd come back to say he was right! Anything.
I entered the 30-somethings a year ago. Now at 31, I started a new chapter in life.
My beautiful son was born on February 22, 2011. When he came out of my wife's womb, he was new to the world... fresh. And throughout this entire year he has grown with such speed that it has transformed life into a virtual whirlwind. I think some brain cells of mine became fried this year.. I think some intelligence was lost. I became worried about every little gasp, whimper, and wail. Little Ayden Morris never seemed to fail; he could make you worried, happy, and sad all in one cry...
Indeed, everything changes with a birth of a child.
I can only explain it like this: When my wife told me at 3am February 22 that "this is it," my entire life changed in an instant..... so there we drove to the hospital after a snowstorm... hours later new life arrived on this planet.
But it wasn't without its losses, this year.. No indeed, not at all.
This year saw horror, tragedy, strife, and loss. Just like any given year, you may say. But this year seemed worse.
I lost my dog Bailey two weeks before my son was born. My sister lost her dog Cloud the same night that my wife went into labor.
Later in the year, my wife lost her mother, Joyce-- a beautiful woman who walked this planet for over 80 years but left in an instant.
Beyond that, the human race itself lost many this year.
It could only be described as a year of disaster.
From birds dying in thousands on New Years day to a tsunami, to an earthquake in the Northeast in the summer..to rumors of war and to bombs of real war... Oh lord, yes indeed, we lived through it all. Not all of humanity lived through it though.
The massive tsunami that struck Japan was immense.. unbelievable..historic.. and deadly. A 9.0 quake coupled with a deadly tsunami and an after effect of nuclear contamination. The perfect storm of horror... the government denied problems first. High radiation levels later they couldn't deny anymore... so the US simply raised the level of 'safe' radiation!
That's how the West responds to horror.
But the West wasn't safe, either.
In 2011, drought killed animals in Texas and dried lakes. An earthquake rattled parts of the nation that never got rattled. Deadly tornadoes killed without prejudice in Joplin, Missouri. Flooding ... winds... hurricanes striking New York City.. massive dust storms in Phoenix.. extreme heat.. snowstorms on Halloween. .
It's all too much.
The Arab spring.
The strange summer.
The frightening fall..
The nuclear winter.
A comet was supposed to destroy earth. So were solar flares.
But that never happened..
Instead, the earth got busy trying to destroy itself.
By year's end we had no choice but to fall on our knees and hear the angels' voices.. the night divine.
Osama was killed and now sleeps with the fishes.. the hot sauce mom went to jail.. A tent collapsed at a fair in Indiana before Sugarland sang. Cholera spread in Somalia. London blazed. 'Anonymous' was unfazed.
Congress voted to make the homeland a battlefield.
Republicans never stopped talking about torture..
Obama lost the mojo..
Vladimir Putin came back.
Amy Winehouse left.
Sandusky "taught kids to use soap."
Joe Pa got fired.
An apple fell from the tree when Steve Jobs left....
Fall on your knees indeed. And hear the angels...crying? Shrugging?
Not sure what they will do after 2011. The year of our lord. Or lordless.
Or lard-asses.
Oh night divine.. save us all.
Yes, indeed, it's been a year. It's been real. Or unreal. I can't tell, really. I sure think the earth will be glad this whole mess of a calender year is now behind us.
Welcome, '12! Bring us the Mayan Calender! Bring us revolt!
Bring us an election!
Bring us something............. maybe no disasters? Maybe no birds dying? Maybe no earthquakes? Come on mother earth, even you have to get tired some time or another...!?
Good year, folks. '11 gone. 2012 hear. Y2-12. Never thought we'd make it through K.
Twelve more months and we'll do this again..... unless those Mayans were right after all.
Happy new year, Earth. Same as it's ever been.