A New Vision with the New Year

Praise the Immortal Word, 2005 is here! I think everyone in the world was ready for 2004 to be over....now let's just hope that huge earthquake didn't set Earth's axis off by too much or it could be even crazier than it has been. At any rate there's nothing we can do about it, so we might as well enjoy the new year and move on from the past.

Personally, 2004 was a very life-changing year for me for many reasons: deaths in the family, floods in my hometown, life-partner/babys' mom splitting up with me, job changes, etc. But in no way can I compare my meager challenges to what the rest of the world has gone thru. The disasters last year, just the natural ones not the man-made ones, have been seriously affecting the entire world in their magnitude. Dec. 26th was the pinnacle of the year Mama Nature made her comeback, when all of us began to pay the price of "progress" and "modern civilization". Right now it's starting to look like our so-called progress is merely speeding up the end of our species, although the most serious disasters (supervolcanoes erupting, megatsunamis, ice ages) are not really dependent on us to completely wipe out most of life on earth. That much is fact. But it's no excuse to keep heading along the self-destructive path we have been on for the past 50-200 years (Industrial age). Maybe we here in America can start looking to a sustainable future, one that's not dependent on foreign oil or Wal-Mart cheap plastic Chinese waste products. If Bush gets his second stolen term though, all we are going to see is more destruction, i'm afraid.

So my vision for 2005 is a new outlook, a new paradigm for the world. One where we start to take our environment VERY seriously, as well as the plight of the world's poor. Because we are all interconnected, there is no one that is not affected when people are suffering somewhere. In America, there's an awful trend of growing poverty, all the while the ultra-rich keep getting richer, and until that changes there will be a tension that will one day snap and cause civil chaos here. And I'm sure it's like that most places these days.... Sadly, it's going to take a terrible defeat for America in Iraq for anyone to wake up and smell the corruption that is destroying the country. But once they do wake up from their "American Dream", people will begin to look for more fulfilling ways to live, like sharing with the poor and working for positive change. No longer will shopping bring that false happiness, because the inevitable econocataclysm here will leave the country broke and broken. I believe people will be looking for redemption in ways that will help the world to grow together, not more divided than ever. That's what I hope, anyway. Maybe there can be something positive that comes from huge natural disasters, a bond that we all share, one where we know that "what happens to the least of you, also happens to me". And then maybe we can leave the Iraqis alone, bless their hearts....

In the meantime World, forgive us for the greedy politicians that have hijacked our country for their own corporate profit agenda.....and please realize that most of us here are completely depressed about what is going on in the name of "Freedom". If we don't bring the troops home soon, I'm afraid we'll pay very dear consequences for destroying someone else's country so we could build it back up. And if we don't change our increasingly more destructive pollutive ways, global warming will speed up the process of the end of civilation, indeed maybe ALL life on Mother Earth. These are very real concerns of mine and I'm sure most people on the planet right now...

2005 will be a critical year, I can feel it. It's time to get up offa the ole comfy chair and work for global healing...