The year 2013 did not disappoint when it came to assorted drama, action and adventure, and the passing of one of the best of the best. Depending on what part of the planet you call home, there were way too many life changing events to list, so we will focus on the events that have global meaning.
2013 was the year climate change was moving more and more towards headline events. The biggest Super Typhoon ever recorded Slammed into the Philippines with winds in the category 6 range that has yet to exist on the Safer Simpson Hurricane scale. Also a 2.6 mile wide F5 tornado the biggest in history formed, did its thing and left. The hottest weather ever in Australia, massive flooding in huge parts of South East Asia, and super storms in The United Kingdom and other nearby countries set the stage for what is to come. To simply put in short terms, there were a lot of weather descriptive words that ended in ‘est’.
Edward Snowden let us know that nothing is secret and the NSA knows more about people than they know about themselves. He showed us what things can be like if there were no moral and ethical values in Government surveillance.
Pope Francis was perhaps the first Pope in the history of the Catholic Church to make such sweeping changes. In less than 9 months he turned the Church around and it once again was connected with the people and more so connected with today. Our input on this is extreme viewed Muslims should take note of a working formula and not act like it still is 700AD running around on assorted jihads.
Also Pope Benedict left the Papacy vertical and not horizontal, and that has not happened in a very long time.
In 2013 the world lost one of the best of the best. Nelson Mandela made his transition to ancestor in December and the entire world gathered to show respect for this man and all that he did. His way of forgiveness showed that he could even forgive and free his jailers.
In 2013 we also relearned things from children that many adults have forgotten. We relearned that the best things in life are the most basic. The right to an education without the Taliban making threats and that human resilience is stronger than a bullet to the head. We relearned that a smile and the touch of another human is what makes us human. And perhaps the most important is what we call human is displayed in animals as well as the strong help the weak or lame.
We were reminded of our place in the universe when a meteor exploded over parts of Russia doing vast amounts of damage and causing injury. We were also reminded that we are one of the few species on this planet that kill our own kind when words of gas attacks in Syria found their way into the news.
But in summary 2013 was a transitional year. The weather got worse, the world got more crowded, and other than weather being in the news every day and not in the weather segment, terrorism was the second most common news topic. So 2014 looks to have the same level of drama if not more as we pay the price for self inflicted misery.
