I have this custom when at the end of the year I write a post on my blog about how my year was, what happened and how I intend to begin the new year, doing my best to attain what new year’s resolutions I have come up with.
And for the first time in ages, I don’t feel like it.
2016 wasn’t just like any other bad year before. It wasn’t just shit. It was utterly crap.
I didn’t realize it at first, as the only thing I recall from writing my previous seven attempts at making something of this blog post was that I was spitting, cussing and foaming at the mouth at all of the injustice I felt that transpired in 2016.
A huge share of my childhood heroes passed away this year. And through their passing, as the world grieved over lost childhoods, memories, infatuations, admirations and all that jazz, we began to feel mortal. It homed in because of this, like a heat-seeking missile on course toward the target.
It began at the end of december 2015 when Lemmy passed away and only a couple of weeks later David Bowie and Alan Rickman. And the year continued on with more, as one by one they all fell down. Glen Frey, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Carrie Fisher, George Michael, Keith Emmerson, Greg Lake, Piotr Grudzinski, Ron Glass, Gene Wilder, Jerry Doyle, Maurice White… The list goes on and so many more went then just the ones I just mentioned.
February 2016 is a particularly dark moment in my life when my aunt Doris passed away after a short period of being ill. In the midst of worldly turmoil and sadness over lost heroes, one of my closest heroes lost her battle and left us. Moving on from that has been difficult and still I am trying to place everything in perspective.
It’s been a sad year and I fully intend to move on from it. For the coming year I have plenty afoot and planned, but for now I shall have to shroud that all in mystery until certain things are more worked out.
For now, this is Ghost signing off and wishing you all a happy, healthy, musical, loving and safe 2017. Be well all and catch you on the flipside.
Shifting The Mirrors 