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Good Morning,

Back in January I met a friend in the street who was in tears having just heard the news that David Bowie had died. She was genuinely distraught. ‘He was a part of my life,’ she said. Before adding that it was ‘such a terrible way to start the year.’

If years were assessed in terms of artistic losses – particularly musicians - then 2016 has been an Annus horribilis, starting with Bowie and ending with George Michael, taking in the death of luminaries Prince, Leonard Cohen and many others. If you were inclined you could construct a narrative which imagined a curse at work, one that was robbing us of those who have brought a little joy and solace to our lives.

The litany of musical obituary has begun to feel like the unofficial soundtrack to a momentous year. There is no doubt that 2016 has given us seismic events, events that have led to social division that, some fear, will resonate well beyond it. And with the merciless destruction of Aleppo many are suggesting 2016 is the worst year they can remember.

But the most rudimentary grasp of history shows that 2016 wouldn’t even make it into a top ten of worst years. If you were a British soldier obeying orders in 1916, or someone trying to survive the plague in 1347, or a mother fleeing Herod’s massacre of the innocents 2000 years ago, you’d have said the same thing.

People have always catastrophized the events of their day. And narratives of gloom have a particular momentum that is hard to resist. What is new is the means by which we absorb, discuss and react to news. Social media not only amplifies, it echoes and reinforces the narratives we want to hear, often to the exclusion of others. It encourages us to become our own historians, inclined to examine the world from our own perspective.

Of course, what is horrible or wonderful in any given year probably depends more on your personal experiences than world events, the micro more than the macro. If you were, say, a just-married, Leicester City supporting, cancer recovering, first time parent then you’d probably have a different perspective on 2016. It might have been your Annus mirabilis.

It says in Proverbs ‘good news is like cold water to the thirsty.’ Perhaps reactions to events this year show how thirsty we are. With perspective we might yet see the year 2016 less as an exception than as a slightly amplified version of The Same Old Story: the story of our struggle with ourselves and each other, with addiction or selfishness, sickness and death; The Same Old Story that is also woven with acts of courage and generosity, love and sacrifice, kindness and hope. As we pick through the rubble of what has been lost this year, let’s look for the signs of life that will get us through the next.

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