2010 may not have been the best year for everybody. For some people it has meant disaster and ruin. However, time keeps marching, and life changes constantly for all of us.
For me, 2009 ended well, but this has been a terrible year. I haven’t received much positive feedback on anything I have done right, and my mistakes might as well have caused the end of the world. All my life I have tried to find a balance in which I could exist, and in return I’ve been met with ignorance, prejudice, avarice and cruelty. I’m entering 2011 up to my hair follicles in all the interpersonal mind games people play with each other. The man with the million dollars dies the same as the street urchin with a penny, but nobody seems to be able to stop the habit of trying to get more than they really need. The big goal I had this year–finishing my novel, which would have cost nothing to do–I had to set aside, and the things for which I set it aside have amounted to nothing in return in spite of the expenses involved.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t see a bigger picture, but I know I won’t really be a part of it. The world keeps turning anyway, so here are my wishes for everybody for 2011.
I hope that 2011 brings an end to the one-in-ten unemployment and more people find a job or a decent place to live that won’t empty their wallets. I hope that some people outside the United States who have religious grievances against us realize that killing Americans doesn’t make them (the killers) better off: in fact, the only way to prove a point is to let it exist in spite of those who don’t agree. Every rule ever made in the world is only as strong as its exception. We need to remind ourselves of that every once in awhile.
I hope that the American work ethic returns to America. I loath having to buy products made cheaply elsewhere when we have able-bodied people here who could make them.
I hope that somebody designs a television guide that actually tells the truth about what channels the cable networks are on the converter box and what is actually on. I also want it in hard copy: I don’t want to scroll through 200 screens. I’ve seen two guide magazines and subscribe to one, and neither of them is really useful.
I hope people stop picking on the elected officials and start putting two and two together to realize that we allowed them to be who they are, bad or good. If the officials are cheating and nobody has the power to depose them, it’s our own damn fault for giving such power away in the first place.
I hope that newspapers and books don’t go away. We need libraries and bookstores and tangible evidence of our history and life. The electronic world is too easily eradicated or altered.
Last, I hope, as I have for about 45 years, that there are answers out there that will save me. If I find them, I will save somebody else with them, too.
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