Of Wishes and Gods

The old man's personal New Year's Eve tradition is to sit quietly at home to contemplate what has been in the year just gone and what is to come in the year yet to be.

Last night as I reviewed my pathway through 2009 I noted several things in particular:

• Amazement that I am still here at my age and condition, while at the same time noting how rapidly my various parts seem to wear out, weaken and stop functioning the way the should.
• Concern at how little our "Great Recession" has affected our rampant consumerism as a people. The industrial machine must be kept going so we the people must borrow the wherewithal from our great grandchildren to permit our corporate bureaucracy (the government) to employ more consumers to use what is left after they are paid, to stimulate the economy as they decide is best, to keep the rest of us consuming.
• Disappointment at how quickly Barack Obama, the Great Crusader of American politics in 2008 became just another president in 2009 as current captive of the American Imperial establishment.
• Sadness that in spite of, or perhaps because of all the scientific and technological wizardry of the golden age of our western civilization, we have befouled our nest like all previous civilizations by failing to live within nature's limits, and we continue to exhaust our surroundings as our life-giving water disappears.

When I consider what is to come I look forward with some hope to continue a self-manageable future a little longer for myself. In the short term I think our country and our world may yet achieve some stability but I wonder how adaptable we can be to the inevitable global changes around the corner. The old man is not a seer or a futurist but here are a few thoughts about 2010:

• I plan to get through the year with as little medical attention as possible, to keep on with walking and other daily exercise to the extent possible. I intend to keep my "little grey cells" funtioning by exercising them with reading, crossword puzzles, scribbling the Post and other nonsense, taking pictures and all the other pastimes I have wasted time with in recent years. Furthermore, with my wife (of the same age), I intend to continue to manage our household and financial affairs to the necessary extent.
• I am not looking forward to the 2010 Winter Olympics, which will dominate at least the first two months of the year in our area. What was for a while a movement to encourage amateur athletics internationally has become, I feel, the private financial fiefdom of a self-perpetuating international Committee, which is all about money and often uncivil competition between nations and teams of individual professional athletes. Even now, the imminent event in Vancouver-Whistler could prove disastrous from the point of view of uncertain weather, movement of people and finances, though for the sake of our country I wish for a roaring success on all counts.
• We are likely to have a federal election in Canada this coming spring. Once again it is likely to be an exercise in futility. Canada has had an almost constant election campaign in and out of parliament since before Jean Chretien resigned as prime minister and that will undoubtedly continue after the next vote. Whoever wins then I expect little difference in our national policy directions.
• In the U.S. the mid-term congressional elections will dominate, the two parties will continue at loggerheads, President Obama's determination to reform health care will continue in stalemate and his administration may well lose what little support it now has in Congress by the end of the year. If the war on terror in central Asia continues to deteriorate as I think it will, Barack Obama may end up being a lame-duck president after two years in office. I hope it will turn out otherwise.
  

If wishes were water
And our gods were all friends,
We would give up the slaughter,
Live as nature intends!

Notwithstanding all that, the old man wishes one and all and especially the few who may read this issue the best of health and happiness in their personal lives through 2010 and beyond!