New post, new week, new year...

Hmm. Yes, what to say about that?

Yes it is a new day in a new year.
It may even be a new era, by some accounts.

Big stuff is coming, big stuff is both going and coming down.
Politics, Gaza, the economy...
Shit, the list goes on and on.


This is the time of year that folks send out the story of their year, condensed to a colorful piece of paper, no larger than 8.5x10 inches.
Careful edits allow the tale of a families joys and struggles for the past 12 months to fit in such a format.
There may be mention of death or natural disaster, but those bits are usually compacted into a single sentence.
Greater emphasis tends to fall on triumphs rather than tests.


And this is not one of those missives.

I am only reflecting on the contrast between the current world situations in contrast to the giddy holiday spirit displayed so heartily and with such plastic sheen, over the past few weeks.
I have been away from work for that time.
Equally engaged in social adventure and seclusion.
It leaves one reflective and cautiously eying the future.


New Year's eve celebration is full of optimism and romance.
New Year's day brings the buyers remorse.

We actually own this day...


These giant piles of crap are ours to deal with.

Did you here about the guy in Covina? He dressed up like Santa and went to his ex's family party X-mas eve? He gunned down the nine year old girl who opened the door along with eight others and lit the place up with a flamethrower. He finished the night at his brother's house, with a gun in his mouth and a bomb in the car.
Somebody has to mop up that one...

And that is just a little poo pile.
Should you really want to get into it, ponder on the neck deep muck bogs.

Wars, collapsing economic towers, Guantanamo, global warming, the likely depletion of not just oil but also potable water in this century.

Nearly every industrialized nation has a population that is aging and numerically in retreat. It is great that population growth has perhaps hit some plateau but leaves less folks to care for and support a ballooning health and social system demand.

Our monetary system on a tight-rope. A recession that will by most examinations last deep into 2010, even with a huge pork pie served up in the coming year.

Frozen wages, credit markets and corporate growth plans.

Foreclosures, unemployment, rising rates of homeless families.



Deeply depressing stuff, when you get down to it.



So, yeah, Happy New Year!