(NOTE: you can skip all the downer stuff if you like, and go straight to my happy wishes for you in bold text at the end.)
The last decade has been pretty good to me personally. I mean, I almost died a couple times (OK three times) but you know, it’s like striking a student’s worst test scores before averaging the grade. Seen that way, I’m holding up fine.
This was the decade my country slid off the road and began rolling down a steep hill through the brush toward fascism. Lot of people trying to grab the wheel and maybe hit something soft but the outcome is still in doubt.
This was the decade my planet really began to show the symptoms of global warming. I mean, California was on fire, and Australia is really on fire, and Greenland ice melting is getting ahead of the worst-case scenario, and on 24 December Antarctica melted more ice than any summer day ever, and Northern permafrost is losing its perm while belching methane, and multiple countries have elected climate deniers but hey, at least ordinary people are finally getting the message. Often by running for their lives.
My mother isn’t doing very well. She’s in her 90’s and had an awful stroke which (thanks to immediate medical attention) she rallied from, but now she’s headed into the memory unit. My brother and his wife are her heroic primary caregivers and both of them have medical connections so she is receiving great care. But in my last conversation with her I realized all the rest of our conversations will only be about happy things even if they are not real things. If there were any questions to answer or issues to resolve, they’re somewhere in the Gulf now.
Wait, you’re still here? Wow. I got nothin’ but props for you for hanging in there.
Sorry, man, I shouldn’t be a downer like that. I mean, we’re both riding six sextillion tonnes of metal and rock, completing another orbit around that fusion reactor in space. We’re in this together.
So here’s the thing: we have this invisible spot marked off in our orbit, and when we pass it some guy’s gonna make a ball fall down or something and we’re on track for the next round. And there’ll be fireworks.
(They already HAD fireworks in Sidney – how’s that for irony?)
Here’s the important part 🙂
Anyway, here is my sincere hope for you and yours: I hope New Years’ comes next year and you can ask yourself just one question:
“What the hell was I worried about? Everything turned out fine!”
Gonna leave this post up for a week, then take it down. Have a great year!
(NOTE: I don’t care about that argument on when a decade “really” begins.)
georgewiman 