Friday, January 1, 2010

January 1, twenty-ten

January 1st. Twenty-ten. A new year. A new decade. A time for reflection over the past decade. (Ten freakin' years go by--just like that ) A time for resolution.

I haven't blogged for a while, for a reason. It was getting too personal, too close to the bone, and frankly, I was afraid of hurting people. When things aren't going right in your life there's no reason to air your dirty laundry in a blog. There's shared experience, yes. But there is also a time and place for everything. And frankly, I'm as much to blame as the other person.

Pretty cryptic, huh? But the fact of the matter, I'll tell you this right now, is this: If you're reading this and you think it's you, it isn't. Because everyone in my life who is close to me and who I talk to and hang out with and party with and act with and play music with and share ideas with: You know who you are. Compared to ten years ago, I'm a pretty lucky individual just to be alive, and I make no bones about it. I didn't hit bottom, but I did see the bottom racing up to meet me right before the bungee cord snapped me back up.

The last decade contained for me some of the worst times of my life and the some of the best (howdy-do, Sue.) And frankly, I'm glad to kiss the first decade of the 21st century adios. But I'm a bit apprehensive about the coming decade. I keep wondering if 100 years ago, in 1910, when the Industrial Revolution was kicking in and our country's rural/agrarian life was fading as people moved to the cities and the god-like automobile was making our lives more mobile and interesting and life was changing dramatically (like it is today) if the everyday Joe knew in a scant four years there'd be the first world war? Then the Twenties (which were a bust; thank you Calvin Coolidge, the Twentieth Century's first George Bush), then the Great Depression (like Michelle Shock asks, What was so great about it?), then WWII. In other words, 100 years ago we were on the precipice of about forty years of suck. It was only after WWII that the prosperity that spawned America's arrogance kicked in, which led to the greed of biblical proporations that we're reeling from.

Nice happy thoughts on New Year's, huh?

Ah, for chrissakes, John, give it up for a day, won't you?

You're right. Give it a rest for a day. I'm long enough in the tooth to know that I'll have plenty of reasons to gripe and complain and predict gloom and doom because I know my fellow human beings will be a constant source of...of...inspiration. LOL.

Anyway, it's January 1 of a new decade. I am, as I like to say, a hopeful cynic. I hope that things turn out all right, while every bone in my body tells me otherwise. That's pretty much how I face life everyday. That's why I have that little crooked smile on my face so often.

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