The cynical optimist

I was supposed to write this blog the day Unus Annus ended, but time got away from me…

Unus Annus has been over for a few days now, and for those of you who may not know what Unus Annus was, well it was a youtube channel that created new videos every day for a year and then once their time was up they deleted the channel and all of it’s content. 

It was something that had never really been done befoe and something that I am lucky enough to have caught from the very beginning. I think one of the things that fascinated me from the start was the fact that it did not shy away from what it was supposed to be. It was about death. About not running from death but instead accepting that the clock moves on forever and there is nothing we can do except make the most of the time we have left and this is a message that I fully endorse. 

So much so that it is a major theme in the book I am working on and until Unus Annus came out I was afraid that it might be too niche and that people wouldn’t get what I was trying to say, now that it is over and I saw that so many people embraced it’s message I feel like maybe my message wouldn’t get lost after all and that it hasn’t been a waste of time. 

The channel as whole turned out to mean a lot more to me than I thought it would, It refocused me, it gave me something to cling onto, a consistency in a year that’s been anything but, it’s made me more confident in my writing and made me remember to enjoy every moment of my life. 

As I’ve talked about in previous blog posts I believe that so much of our lives are made up of the small moments, cozying up under a blanket with someone you love reading a book or watching tv, or going to the park on a crisp fall morning and seeing the colors of the changing leaves on the nearby trees, or even sharing a laugh with someone in line as you wait to buy something. We celebrate our lives in milestones, birthdays, anniversaries, death and birth, but i think those smaller more common moments get lost and Unus Annus with it’s ever ticking clock was a stark reminder to me to appreciate when I can have those moments. Life with loved ones, family, friends, Laughter with coworkers and strangers and hope that our planet is not hopeless. 

So a few days ago when the channel ended I found myself on the verge of tears which surprised me, but i also felt oddly at peace because I allowed myself to be present and though I never commented or particpated in the community as much as I should, I never felt apart from it. All of us who watched, and particpated in the channel were a part of something special and I am happy to have been there. 

I will miss Unus Annus, I truly will, but I will never forget the experience. 

Thank you. 

Memento Mori.