A Love-Letter to 2016

A lot of people have been really down on 2016. Whiners, mostly. You tell if someone (let's face it, almost certainly a millennial)  has never actually had any true hardship ever in their lives, if they claim that 2016 was the 'worst year ever' because some old or drugged-out celebrities died and people they didn't like won elections.

For a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump, for example, 2008 was the worst year ever; not because someone they liked died that year or because Obama won the election, but because that was the year their job was lost and their lives destroyed.

The worst year of my Polish grandfather's life was unquestionably 1939. There's nothing I've experienced in my life so far that would come even close.

Anyways, 2016 has, for me, not been a bad year but rather an Anno Mirabilis.  Both in my personal life and in terms of world events.  It was the greatest bestest year ever.

In 2016, for starters, I made more money than I had in my entire life. Dark Albion has been an incredibly successful product for me. Break.com has been a wonderful place to work (and kudos to Alex, Winston, and everyone else there!), where they've pretty well allowed me to write (within certain broad limits) whatever the fuck I want and trusted it would be good. And I think, for the most part, it really has been.   As much as I liked writing politics for Everyjoe, getting to write about a huge variety of subjects at Break - weird, funny and educational stuff - has all been great fun.

Second, it's been really great in terms of other personal goals. Spiritually, it was huge, but I won't be going into too much detail there.  In terms of living life on my own terms, it's been pretty well a peak. It brought some nice surprises for me in my Masonic work.  My personal RPG groups have all been really stable and awesome.

Third, politically it's been pretty well a home run. Brexit. Donald Trump. The gradual unraveling of the EU, and the leaders who have most contributed to the dismantling of western civilization either losing power or losing favor one-by-one. It's rocked.   And a note to you liberals: It's going to keep happening!

Of course the Left has behaved utterly despicably this year, doubling down on being more smarmy, more deceptive, more totalitarian and more pro-censorship than ever. But it's all just backfired on them. They're more despised and less effective than ever.

And finally, yes, a lot of famous mostly very old people died. Let me reveal a shocking fact to those of you, again mostly Millennials, for whom 2016 has very clearly made apparent had never actually been taught this: old people die. ALL old people die eventually. Yes, you too will also get old, and then you will die. This is not a shocking, tragic, surprise; it's actually just what happens.

David Bowie was an amazing musician, it's true!  He was also a 69 year old man. When a 69 year old man dies, it's not a "horrific tragedy", nor was his life "cut short" as some absolute morons have said. He was goddamn 69, and had a more interesting, amazing and productive life that 99% of people alive, including many people who are going to live 30 years longer than David and accomplish fuck all with their lifetime.

Let me put it this way: I'm a couple of decades younger than Bowie. If I should somehow croak now, my life would be a triumph.  I'm totally satisfied with everything I did. My life was astoundingly full. It would not be a 'tragedy' that I die, it would only be an ending of an already-successful life.

People who don't get that are mostly people who have lived a life where so far they've accomplished fuck all, and foresee accomplishing fuck all in the years to come.  If you've actually lived, death becomes much less scary.

Yes, a lot of the famous people who died in 2016 were very interesting people, or people who I felt a sense of connection to in some part of my personal life.  Apparently Carrie Fisher died today, and she was a feature of my childhood, of my early nerdiness, and yes, probably an influence on my developing pre-adolescent sexuality. But that's what happens in any year: people die.

There's at least a couple of people who died this year who were pieces of shit that absolutely deserved to die. None moreso than that complete fucker, Fidel Castro. His death was far too late-coming, and far too comfortable.

In fact, there's 4 more days to go in 2016, and if anything we could argue too many good people have died compared to absolute cunts.  I have a little list in my head of people whose grave I'd piss on, and so far Castro has really been the only one. It would be the feather on the cap of this amazing, awesome wondrous year, my dear 2016, if you could just make one more go at-bat in the 100 hours or so it has left, and killed just one person on my little list.

I'll still love you and remember you with amazing fondness just the same, either way. But if you could just give us all one more welcome surprise, that'd be great.


RPGPundit


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