Turn and the face the change:
a very apt title from the wonderful back catalogue left by David Bowie, one of
the many unexpected and premature deaths that seem to have characterised 2016.
Many have branded 2016 as the
“worst year ever”, citing in particular the Brexit vote and its aftermath, the
election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency, multiple terrorist atrocities
and the aforementioned celebrity deaths.
It is very easy to join in with
this chorus of negativity, but two points come to my mind: firstly, I think
that many of those who talk doom and gloom should perhaps consider swapping
their lives in our comfortable Western democracies in 2016 with those of people
in many other parts of our contemporary world, or indeed with those of British
people in, say 1940 or 1916, before declaring their lives to be quite so
shitty. However bad things seem, there are far worse places to live and far
worse eras to live in. Secondly, I think we should be very careful about seeing
everything through the filter of the hyper-connected and over-reactive world in
which we live, rather than through our own response. In other words, are we over-influenced by a
collective response to what happens, rather than just forming our own reaction?
My memory of the elections of Margaret
Thatcher as UK Prime Minister or Ronald Reagan to the Presidency in 1980 is
that these were accompanied by similar ridicule, bewilderment and hysteria
about imminent Armageddon, but there was not the same opportunity for mass
reaction, and so that reaction was more muted, confined mainly to the traditional
media, with no chance for hashtags and social media campaigns.
Yes, we may well feel that both
of those figures of hate and fun from the 1980s inflicted much harm upon their
respective countries and indeed the wider world, but we all survived. And we
have all survived 2016, and will no doubt survive 2017 and beyond, albeit with
plenty of hurt and sorrow along the way.
If 2016 can teach us two things,
it is that nothing is more inevitable than change, and that we do not always
get what we want. Many of us, myself included, are deeply unhappy and apprehensive
about the changes that 2016 has brought about, just as we all get upset in our
daily lives about all sorts of things: the new boss’s policies at work, refereeing
decisions in football, winners of Strictly Come Dancing or Britain’s Got Talent
- whatever may upset us at any given moment. Life isn’t fair, shit happens, and
we don’t always agree with those who have power over us, but I always feel that
we spend too much time wishing that things were otherwise. Turn and face the change.
I faced my own change in 2016,
retiring from full-time work and in particular from a role which I, and only I,
had undertaken for 25 years, as Head of Sixth Form, a position of considerable
influence over the lives of the young people with whom I worked. Of course I
miss it, and as I still work in the same school, I watch my old job being done
by others, in a different way.
But as one door closes, others
are opening. Over the past two years, I have become increasingly involved in
the community of my fellow Type One Diabetics, and have found new
opportunities, new friendships and new experiences which provide me with fresh
challenges for 2017 and beyond. I hope to have the opportunity to help others,
be it online or face-to-face, to live and flourish as I have done with a
condition which is difficult yet manageable. I hope to use the skills and
experience gained in a lifetime of teaching in new and different ways. Accepting
that I am getting older and not in perfect health, I hope to have a life which
is less physically demanding yet still busy.
My life is changing, the world is
changing. Let’s stop moaning and get on with it.
Happy New Year!
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