Revolution across the Maghreb, successive natural disasters, fears of nuclear meltdown in Japan, Long standing dictators across the world being overthrown and/or unexpectedly meeting their end, the former leader of the IMF and well-known louche is indicted on attempted rape charges, Slut Walks, Anti-cuts marches in London, The US hunt for Bin Laden comes to a bloody conclusion, summer riots blight the UK, a slightly sinister new breed of pre-teens/teeny boppers find new ways to make our ears bleed, the phone hacking scandal instigates the crumbling of the Murdoch media empire, a supremacist maniac massacres innocents in Scandinavia, another royal wedding accompanied by fuss about an overrated derrière*, economic turmoil in the Eurozone, Political and religious assassinations, a tormented pop-soul icon dies in her prime, Occupy Wall Street comes to London, an apparently untouchable Italian premier is forced to step down...
*True full bottomed-girls wouldn't be so easily impressed by the junior Middleton sister's posterior. I speak from experience. JLo, Shakira, Beyoncé et al needn't worry about being usurped in that department.
Phew. It is exhausting just recounting only some of the news stories in what has proved to be an exceptionally eventful year. Time and space do not allow me to enumerate them all. However you look at it, anyone old enough to be cognisant in 2011 will not forget it in a hurry. The expression 'stranger than fiction' couldn't be more appropriate. You couldn't make some of this up.
It’s been fascinating to witness such significant moments in modern history (I missed out on a front row seat to history-in-the making as a goodwill ambassador shortly after things kicked off in Tunisia. The fearful news reports of mass turmoil got the better of me). Maybe most interesting of all is how divine justice finally caught up with many corrupt, powerful individuals who hitherto behaved as if there would never be a day of reckoning.
Personally, probably the most outstanding thing that happened this year was turning 30. I marked the occasion with a lovely long weekend in Brussels courtesy of my very generous sister. This milestone notwithstanding, 2011 has not been quite as spectacular or progressive a year as I’d hoped. I assumed something magical would happen at the cusp of my fourth decade.
Sometime in the last quarter of the year the seasonal blues hit me with a vengeance. The usual ‘what have I done with my life?’ questions dogged me. I only managed to shake them off a few weeks ago. Even as I write two days from the start of 2012, I’m not exactly on an emotional high. I have found the days coming up to the New Year and early January a particular challenge in the past. I'm not one to believe you have to wait for a new year to make a resolution. If anything you're more likely to fail if you procrastinate till a specific time to make a change. It’s best to start whenever and wherever you are, otherwise it begs the question; how serious were you about transformation in the first place? Nevertheless there is that almost crushing sense of expectation that comes with the Festive period and it is hard to ignore.
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| Children of the Revolution: Scenes from the 'Arab Spring'. Image courtesy of A1 Social. |
Sometime in the last quarter of the year the seasonal blues hit me with a vengeance. The usual ‘what have I done with my life?’ questions dogged me. I only managed to shake them off a few weeks ago. Even as I write two days from the start of 2012, I’m not exactly on an emotional high. I have found the days coming up to the New Year and early January a particular challenge in the past. I'm not one to believe you have to wait for a new year to make a resolution. If anything you're more likely to fail if you procrastinate till a specific time to make a change. It’s best to start whenever and wherever you are, otherwise it begs the question; how serious were you about transformation in the first place? Nevertheless there is that almost crushing sense of expectation that comes with the Festive period and it is hard to ignore.
Several weeks ago, in the midst of my end-of-year melancholia I watched M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Signs’ again, a film I once very much appreciated. Mel Gibson’s small town ex-minister Graham Hess loses his faith and gives up his vocation when his wife Colleen dies in a car accident. Towards the end of the film we see the couple’s final exchange in which Colleen appears to be gabbling nonsensically. It’s only a few years later, following an alien invasion and the former Reverend Hess is trying to save his household from hostile extra-terrestrials that her instructions come into better focus. It had been a while since I’d last seen ‘Signs’ and it has lost some of its sheen. There is a hint of self-importance and over-sentimentality of which I had not previously been aware. Plus Rory Culkin’s Morgan is so very obnoxious. How could I not remember that? Still the overall message of the film rings true; everything is everything. Things happen for a reason. For us mere mortals, not being privy to the grand design or greater context, setbacks and suffering can seem pointless. Yet as the film posits, and I am inclined to believe, there comes a time or situation when they start to make sense. Thus perhaps it’s still too early for me to tell how useful a year 2011 has been on a personal level. Progress can’t and shouldn’t be just measured on the basis of tangible or material gain. I am sure there are life lessons 2011 has taught me which will no doubt serve my character well in the long run.
I've definitely had some exciting adventures in my journalistic pursuits this year. There have been some really special highlights including the London Acappella Festival in January and Sade's long-awaited return to the UK stage after nearly 20 years in the Spring.
In 2011 I stepped out on a limb with my writing; partly from choice and partly due to circumstance. I set out to spend more time updating my blog and I by and large succeeded albeit without managing to consistently match the heady days of the first quarter of the year when I averaged three or four posts a week.
I would like to say I will continue posting at a similar level of regularity in 2012 but it seems rather too premature to say. Trying to publish a minimum of 10 blogs a month * is a lot harder than it might look. On that front I’ll keep my ambitions for next year more modest. I’ll be even more focused on quality than quantity than I was in 2011. In a bid to meet my blog quota I admit to posting reviews about items of which I was not entirely enthusiastic. I hope for there to be less of that in 2012.
In 2011 I stepped out on a limb with my writing; partly from choice and partly due to circumstance. I set out to spend more time updating my blog and I by and large succeeded albeit without managing to consistently match the heady days of the first quarter of the year when I averaged three or four posts a week.
I would like to say I will continue posting at a similar level of regularity in 2012 but it seems rather too premature to say. Trying to publish a minimum of 10 blogs a month * is a lot harder than it might look. On that front I’ll keep my ambitions for next year more modest. I’ll be even more focused on quality than quantity than I was in 2011. In a bid to meet my blog quota I admit to posting reviews about items of which I was not entirely enthusiastic. I hope for there to be less of that in 2012.
*Yes. I am very aware I didn't always meet this target, as is the case this month. I draw the line at trying to draw blood from a stone. If inspiration doesn't come, I really won't force it. Sorry folks.
To those who have consistently supported ‘I Was Just Thinking...’ and even to the casual passer-by who took the time to read one of my many verbose offerings; I say thank you for humouring me. Being virtually cut off from the social network hegemonies of Twitter and Facebook it’s a wonder anyone found my blog at all. I hope we continue this journey together. Don’t forget to bring a friend.
Wishing you all a progressive 2012.
Wishing you all a progressive 2012.
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