So long to one terrible, horrible, really bad year. Was it the worst? Maybe not.

It feels like 2016 was a truly awful year: the horror of Syria, the Trump election, Brexit, terrorist bombings in Europe, the tragedy in Fort McMurray, police shootings, mass shootings, the ugly resurgence of misogyny and even the tsunami of celebrity deaths. The rich got richer, the extreme right got meaner, intolerance came right out into the open. The police became more militarized and weaponized if that’s even a word. I read a remark – I think it was out of the U.K. – where the writer/blogger said something along the lines of, “In 20 years, if you are playing trivia games and the question begins with ‘In what year…?’ just answer 2016.” The implication being that if the event was tragic, it likely happened last year. Personally, I’m glad to see the end of it.

In thinking about why this year just feels so regrettable, we need to look no further than the Internet. If you are a big consumer of real and/or fake news then the barrage of bad news coming at you 24/7 is magnified a thousand times beyond its already awful borders. If you agonize over the apparent rise in racism – any ‘ism’ actually – then you can find confirmation of your bias thanks to a 24-hour news cycle. If your fear runs to having those bleeding heart, damn ‘lefties’ threaten your personal and global security, then trolling the Internet may convince you to bar your doors, build a wall and try to find great-grandpa’s long-buried bomb shelter.

Whether you were a fan of Harper Lee or David Bowie or Muhammad Ali, you don’t get to grieve just once: you can share your distress on Facebook and then spend hours or days commiserating with other supporters. That one death can feel like a hundred untimely demises. And for those of us of a certain age, seeing our rock or literary or celebrity icons fall like dominoes can remind us of our own mortality.

The odd thing is that the wealthier and more secure that one’s homeland is the better access to bad news one has. It’s a strange paradox that places that are truly hell on earth may not angst as much as we – who have the ability to magnify our worries – do.

But as lousy as it was, a bit of thought and a quick bit of research reveals years when life was truly bleak. The Black Death killed one third of Europe’s population in just 18 months back in 1348. In 1492 Christopher Columbus’ foray into the New World resulted in the loss of 90 percent of the indigenous population by the mid-19^th century.

Two world wars killed almost 80 million people. By 1943 the Nazi regime had already murdered 1.3 million Jews. The lesson from 1943 shows that public knowledge of atrocities does not necessarily prevent them from continuing as we’ve learned in Rwanda and now Syria.

In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, there were race and anti-war riots against the war in Vietnam, and Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States.

So…against that small sample backdrop of truly bad years, 2016 was crappy but not apocalyptic.

And a lengthy list list of good news happened in 2016 too. Canadians became joined at The Hip when Gord Downie announced that he has terminal brain cancer. On the environmental front, the ozone layer seems to be repairing itself, which is good as we humans seem to be hell-bent on destroying it. Green sea turtles, manatees and humpback whales have come off the endangered list. Global aid is way up and 2016 was China and the U.S.’s most generous year ever. The Standing Rock protesters halted the Dakota Access Pipeline. Columbia reached a peace deal with FARC rebels after 50 years of conflict and a vaccine that protects against Ebola was discovered. Canada met its 25,000 Syrian refugee target, and the Royals toured Canada with Prince George and Princess Charlotte, captivating most of the country with their pure adorableness.

I’m a New Years ‘baby’ so the new year always makes me super introspective. My musings this year? If 2016 was the year of fear then maybe 2017 can be the year of hope. Just do something: pick a cause, make a friend, stay connected, be generous, write a letter, speak out against injustice and practice an attitude of gratitude. Spend more time with people and a little less online. Talk less and listen more. Laugh…a lot!

Happy New Year! As Oprah Winfrey once said, “Cheers to a new year and another chance to get it right.”

Following a career in the hospitality sector and the acquisition of a law and justice degree in her 50s, Dale embarked on a writing career armed with the fanciful idea that a living could be made as a freelancer. To her own great surprise she was right. The proof lies in hundreds of published works on almost any topic but favourites include travel, humour & satire, feature writing, environment, politics and entrepreneurship. Having re-invented herself half a dozen times, Dale doesn’t rule anything out. Her time is divided equally between Muskoka and Tampa Bay with Jim, her husband of 7 years and partner of 32 years. Two grown ‘kids’ and their spouses receive double doses of love and attention when she’s at home.

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