2015 A Year Of Reality

December signals summer, last minute panic and hopefully a few moments of reflection. As I ponder the year that was, I find myself thinking of 2015 as the Year of Reality. [This post is a copy of my monthly column in Swan Magazine, which can be found online, and if you live in the Swan region you can also pick up a hardcopy.]

© The Ponder Room

2015 arrived in the wake of the sad passing of Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes and the unfathomable actions at the Lindt Café. Two events that defied belief. Life had changed, and as the New Year’s Eve fireworks dissipated, we hungered for a better year. We craved a place of peace and kindness for all. But where could we head for solace in the meantime?

The answer came from an unlikely source … television, particularly Reality Television. Across the nation we ran away from our lives and into the mind-numbing escapism of Reality Television.

In February 1.9 million of us watched the premier of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. A show that pitted a handful of celebrities against the African juggle. Watching people cope with the threat of snakes, bungee jumps, and indigestible tucker trials, was far easier than facing the growing terrorism concerns mounting across the globe. Thirty one episodes later 1.1 million of us were still tuning in to watch the finale.

February also saw the birth of Gogglebox Australia.

Forget spending millions of dollars on scripts, sets, actors, special effects and augmented reality, Gogglebox had arrived. Each week approximately 600,000 of us, me included, plonked down on our couches and spent an hour watching ten families, sitting on their couches, watching television. Worm hole anyone? With news of a third season being commissioned I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hadron Collider was rebooting this very second, cranking up for another big bang in the hope that we might get it right next time.

March saw the extraordinary feat of Australia being invited into the Eurovision Song Contest. Represented by the immensely talented Guy Sebastian (another product of Reality Television), we not only made it into the grand final we finished fifth, fifth! What’s more, having shared our toys and played nicely with the other countries, we were invited back.

The year was off to a good start.

More importantly in March the Lindt Café reopened its doors and we rejoiced as normality took its first tentative steps back in.

Three months later we were beside ourselves with joy and Crocodile Dundee like possibilities, as we watched firsthand the reality of Mick Fanning surviving a shark attack. Our chests puffed, buttons straining with pride.

By October we were ordering larger shirts as Fremantle, yes Fremantle, was ranked in the top ten of Lonely Planet’s ‘Cities To Visit In 2016’. Sure the world knows of Australia, and many make the trek to cuddle a koala in Sydney, but how often do we hear mention of Perth let alone Fremantle? 2015 was proving to be a very good year.

However the year was not without disappointments.

The producers at Granada Television steadied themselves for the public backlash when a 37-year-old Englishman was crowned winner of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. An Englishman deemed better than Australians at surviving in the bush, that can’t be right. And not just any Englishman, Freddie Flintoff, the former English cricket captain who mercilessly robbed us of cricketing glory on more than one occasion. Next thing they’ll be telling us a lone Round-the-World yachtsman has sailed through our underbelly waters without the aid of the Australian Navy. Thankfully Flintoff’s cheeky, humble, slightly flawed character, made him perfect fodder to take the reins from Tom Cruise as a much loved adopted son.

In June bedfellows Cadbury and Kraft consummated the relationship with the production of vegemite-flavoured chocolate. Given the crushing success of salted caramel ice cream, salted caramel donuts, salted caramel …well anything really, you could see where the designers were heading. Sadly, early reviews hinted that the union was as doomed as that of Geoffrey Edelsten and Gabi Grecko.

In September the nation was back in the international spotlight … displacing our leader, again. Are we incapable of picking a leader who will last longer than 12 months? More of an international scandal though was our treatment of Johnny Depp’s dogs, Boo and Pistol. Oh the shame.

Two months later the end of the year was upon us again.

In the countdown to the December 31st fireworks there was no indication that the year would end with a very different kind of bang. A bang reaching us all the way from Paris … a reality that we simply couldn’t ignore and prayed wasn’t true.

Here in Perth, the most isolated capital of the world, we mourned with the rest of the world. We can try to distract ourselves with reality television as much as we want, sooner or later we have to remember that we live in a shared reality, one in which all global citizens have a role to play.

While you enjoy the holiday break, keep safe, cherish your loved ones and take a moment to think about those experiencing loss for the first time this Christmas.

On a personal note I’d like to thank you for reading my ponderings it’s a real privilege and I look forward to musing about a more positive year ahead.

Merry Christmas, see you in a couple of weeks.