the runner eclectic

As 2016 drew to a close, I was a little surprised how many people on social media (and elsewhere) went out of their way to throw rotten fruit at the year on its way out.

Of course there’s a long tradition of viewing the annual flip of the calendar in anthropomorphic terms – e.g., the weary old man with the long beard making way for the fresh-faced child – but this year, most seemed to imagine 2016 as a monster or devil-year, and as the seconds ticked away to midnight on New Year’s Eve, there seemed to be a collective shout of good riddance. Typical were the numerous examples of what Slate.com called the “best meme of 2016,” before-and-after riffs expressing the popular view that, though we survived the year, it left us physically and emotionally wrecked.

Even though I laughed along with the memes, I felt something quite different.
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