HAPPY NEW YEAR, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

I was just looking back on the January 2008 blog, which was more cynical even than I am usually! It was titled, "Happy New Year Blah Blah Blah." How cynical is that?! It was about how people were so flat and bored at and after Christmas, and how 2008 would be a great year.!! I must have had too much nog to be able to see the future clearly.

2008 was certainly not a good year for a good many of us. Record high unemployment, financial crises, an "entitlement" bailout of financial institutions and GM that will bankrupt the country and its middle-class citizens, record housing foreclosures and the collapse of the housing market...and a war that we should never have started that's cost us over five years, thousands of US military personnel, nearly a trillion dollars, and who knows how many Iraqi lives. Even if you still have your job, your home, and you haven't lost any family members in the Middle East, the crises of 2008 has touched everyone in some way. And it certainly made all of us a bit more fearful. In the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." But then, at that time, the country didn't have Fox News, CNN and Geraldo.

Many people I know have lost money in the Stock Market this year, and these are not wealthy people but people who had hoped these funds would take care of them in retirement. Retirement funds have all but dried up, and in many cases are gone completely. Every one of us in my family have been closely evaluating our jobs, retirement funds, and credit, making sure we're in some kind of "good" shape.

On the up side, we have a new President, and that always seems to give people hope. Frankly, I wonder if President-Elect Obama is wondering what he was thinking when he decided to run for the office! Facing some of the worst crises this country has ever seen has to be daunting beyond words. How on earth can anyone fix all of this?! Yet there are people who will expect him to do just that within his first year, and then condemn him when he cannot. I dare say that McCain/Palin are the lucky ones.

Also on the up side, I have a wonderful family, great friends, a spouse who has tolerated me and my quirks for more years than anyone should ever have to tolerate anything; I have a job, good health and a home. I have much more than so many people in this or any other country, and I pray for better days for everyone.

Happy New Year... humbly.