in review and hope for the future

Ahhh… 2007 in review. For me, personally, 2007 has been a tough year. For many I have talked to- from online friends to my life long friends- 2007 has been a tough year. Many losses this year. This was a year that started out with great promise and ended with frustration and disappointment- to put it mildly. I know I have struggled alternately between fighting the good fight and wondering what exactly I was fighting for. It has been a year of sadness for me as I have mourned the loss of my home- my country- and the ideal I thought it was. I have watched as one who means the world to me dies because of corporate greed in the healthcare system. There has been much sadness as I have watched people go about their way and continue to consume and destroy planet earth because they feel that they are entitled to live in a certain style.

Not all has been bad though- for me- I have emerged with a sense of clarity and purpose on how I will live my life. I have forged new relationships with people and I have strengthened old ones. Life is too short to be taken advantage of or put up with people who aren’t going to change- and continue on in their self centered, ego centric vein while the world burns up around them. And so- I had to loosen a few ties to the past as well. One of the reasons I continued on waffling about whether or not to continue was that so many people in this country and the rest of the world- opened their eyes to the lies and corruption that was all around. We may not know what to do about it- but there is a sense that we can’t leave it up to others anymore. There is a sense that those ‘others’ aren’t looking out for our best interests- and that was heartening. Many folks on the right awoke to find that they were wrong- and admitted it. Many Christians decided that the neo con brand of their religion was not in line with the founder’s message- and deserted as well. So, there was a little light in all of the dark.

So, what of 2008? Ooohhh- I am not going to speculate. I will hope though. I hope that we can kick into high gear with saving our planet. You may not think that global warming is a dire threat- but anything that you can do to not pollute or over consume- benefits everyone. I hope that religion goes away. Keep your spirituality and beliefs but ditch the organized dogmatic religion. There is no ‘right’ way to believe in god- if that’s your choice- and perhaps recognizing that will lead the way towards peace. I hope that we- as the western world- start looking at the rest of the world’s population as actual people- instead of less than. Just because they are poor and English is not their first language doesn’t mean that they aren’t just as human as you or me. I would hope that corruption would go away- but that’s too much to ask- so I will just hope that the guilty are brought to accountability and justice before too long. And I hope that we have learned our lesson here in our broken democracy. We cannot ever take freedom for granted. While we are not out of the woods yet- folks are aware that we are headed towards bad times because we have allowed so many freedoms to be taken away. It won’t get better unless we take them back. So- here’s to 2008- may we take back our democracy and help repair the damage done in our name.