Monday, January 04, 2010
a new hope, a new dream
A new year has begun ushering in a fresh decade. As we are all want to do, I’ve tried to look over the past ten years of my life. Where have I been? Has it matched up to where I’ve wanted to go? What is there ahead for me? All very introspective and fraught with hindsight and better judgment. Yes, there were mistakes. Yes, there were regrets. Yes, there were incongruities. Especially when looked over under the light of our recent economic downturn. But, in turn, there were some grand memories, some very unforgettable experiences and the wonderful times with friends and family as we’ve matured in our relationships.

As some of us traipse through our lives, the years quickly falling away with each step, it’s necessary to stop and look for a sign or two to direct us in a more determined direction. Sometimes it’s the tracks we’ve left behind quietly reminding us how far we’ve gone, sometimes it’s the crumbling of the path we’re on forcing us to re-evaluate what we’re doing and where we’re going. Sometimes it’s a helping hand, sometimes it’s a clenched fist. Yet for me, it seems I’ve still yet to find any assistance in discovering such a direction. Existential angst indeed.

But with a new year and a new decade ahead, despite the arbitrary temporal focus, there is hope, there is optimism. However, I have to admit, it is hard to be optimistic about what lies in store for you when you’ve seen the culmination of decade’s worth of work vanish into the ether after one little economic meltdown. It’s hard to feel enthusiasm for the future when you feel, no, actually have been cheated by the system. A system that said, go to school, do well, and get a good job then you’ll achieve the American dream. Buy a home and start a family and you’ll be living the American dream. Go off and start a business, work hard and you’ll surpass the American dream. Work hard, play by the rules, do the right thing and you’ll be rewarded. No, in fact what we’ve seen is that the rules don’t apply to those who make them nor to those that are supposed to enforce them. Our system is actually, you work hard to game the system to get yours and yours alone. The bottom line is the only thing that matters. The American dream is the stuff those at the top sell you to keep you sedate and happy with the status quo while they milk you for everything you’ve got leaving you with nothing in the end and you’re actually content with that.

But that’s a bitter and cynical end. And best to let it go and move forward, especially if you’re but one little speck, if that, in the cosmos that has no ultimate authority to do anything about anything outside the sphere of your own existence. Changes are abound, new things will come about as will old things make a return. And still for me, the prospect of what is yet to come still fascinates me far more than what has come to pass. Thus, to the coming year and with great hope for the coming decade, I raise a glass and huzzah! Here’s to what may come.

Happy New Year.

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