2024 is almost over, it was a packed year. So many things happened this year. Let’s unpack them.
I did not write much Pillows here but that did not stop me from writing. I wrote quite a lot this year on my personal website about various events that caught my interest this year.
I wrote about the rule of love, a definitive guide to understanding, identifying and doling out true love. Then I wrote another definitive guide to understanding life and its meaning. Then I wrote about my storied love and history with football and then wrote a chronology of some of the major events that have defined my lifetime.
If I had kept up with my weekly Pillows, like I’d done consistently over the years, we would have had a mouthful. It looked like there was a major event every week this year.
The U.S. Elections was a major character, the in-fighting, the attempt to assassinate Trump (we all seem to have forgotten what a monumental and catastrophic outcome that would have been if that attempt was successful), then Biden dropped out and Kamala stepped in. The campaigns were storied, news and news and then the results. I think the Election wins for the award for the event of the year. Sticking to the Election theme, there were monumental results globally. In the United Kingdom, the Labour party won the elections and took the reins of power from the Conservatives after more than a decade. In Africa, Senegal elected a young man in power despite the best efforts of the incumbent to derail that. India also had a shakeup with its major party. France also had its election story. The theme this year seemed to be a power shift where incumbents did lost elections, including in Ghana. Power seemed to return to the masses and the narrative about public power changed a lot this year. I am not sure if this sets the trend for the future but it’s obvious that democracy was a hot topic this year.
As the year was tapering out, big news came out from Syria about the fall of dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. It was a shock outcome that no one anticipated and it happened so quickly. This year did not see an end to conflict; Russia and Ukraine is still going and the middle east conflict expanded to include Lebanon.
The Olympics used to be a major event and this year’s in Paris was a major event but it feels like it paled in comparison with what was going on in the world. Most people already forgot that the games took place this summer. The Euros also took place this summer and saw Spain victorious. Another sad tale of “it” coming home for the English who lost in the finals.
This year also showed us how dependent we have become on technology. Crowdstrike probably wins villain of the year for all the setback their outage caused around the world. AI was also a major topic with breakthroughs after breakthroughs announced.
I am not sure how Pillows will evolve next year but I’ll try to not leave this baby. Give me suggestions on the kind of light hearted information you’d like to see from Pillows next year. I am also toying with other variations like Blankets (where I share short poems or tell overstories that I heard during the week). I actually did a lot of poems this year but I posted those on Medium instead.
Thank you for riding with me in 2024 and wishing you the best in 2025.
Always true,
Miracle Roch.