Some years I don’t pick a theme word but I do try and name my yearly Facebook albums something clever. This year, damnit, I have a theme.
Rise.
With the fairly crappy politics south of us and in my own province Rise Up is pretty much the only sentiment. I don’t generally suggest incompetent governments as a method to increase civic engagement but hey… we’re here now. I’ve probably protested more and written more political commentary in 2017 than I have for the previous ten years. That’s both an indication that it’s been a rough year for the citizen bit of my world and that I have slacked off in the last ten years. Let’s not let that happen again.
It also suggests other methods of standing up or rising for life: rise above, rise and shine, be awake. And I’m going to try for those and push those around me to try for it, too.
There’s also a great sci fi series by Seanan McGuire (writing as Mira Grant) where the protagonist calls for her fellow citizens to rise up. I realize we’re not quite at the zombie apocalypse stage but I’d really prefer to avoid that whole bit.
And of course… zombies rise. So we have that version of rise. Nope, still avoiding that bit.