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| NASA Sunspot Number Predictions for Solar cycle 23 and 24 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In just a few hours the year 2012 will be fodder for
historians. We’ll then have to hunker
down and begin the effort of facing 2013, and whatever the new year has in
store for us.
I’ve spent most of the morning wrestling with what
to write in my final 2012 blog. Should I rehash the momentous events of the
year about to pass? Were there, in fact,
even any momentous events?
We had a historic election. The nation’s first black president won
reelection; not with an overwhelming mandate, but with a comfortable enough
margin of victory to make it more than a mere fluke. But, he’s still faced with an implacably
hostile House of Representatives; populated with enough hard core Tea Party
activists to make getting rational legislation passed a task not to be envied,
and a Senate that has a minority that will, from the difficulty we seen in
getting a sane fiscal policy passed, continue to pose obstacles. Horrific acts of mindless violence, such as
the slaughter of innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Connecticut, were a blot on us as a nation, and the response of the gun nuts
just made it worse.
We saw 12/12/12 pass without notice, and the so-called
Mayan Calendar Apocalypse predicted for December 21, 2012 was a nonevent.
Should I, instead, focus on what we could or should
be doing for the coming year? Will it be
better or worse? That would,
unfortunately, involve making predictions; and, predicting is something I’ve
never been good at. Life has a way of
making fools out of those who would have the arrogance to do such a thing.
I don’t even plan to make any New Year’s
resolutions. I haven’t done that for as
long as I can remember. Making promises
to myself for one day out of the year always struck me as a useless
exercise. I’d much rather resolve every
day to do better than I did the day before.
You might say that makes me sound like a supremely self-centered person,
and you’d be right. I am
self-centered. The emphasis here is on ‘centered.’ Not in an egotistical sense, although I
recognize that there’s a large element of egoism inherent in this philosophy,
but, just the acceptance that it’s only my own actions and thoughts that I have
any control over.
So, for me, 2013 will just be 2012 continued; and,
hopefully bettered. That’s a resolution
I plan to make each day. I will continue
to try and write 1,000 words a day – actually, since I retired from government
service in September I’ve managed to do three times that, so maybe in 2013 I’ll
up my game and shoot for 3,000. I
started working on improving my Spanish language skills; for no specific
reason, it just seemed like an interesting thing to do. I began to get to know my new granddaughter,
Samantha. Being in Zimbabwe for most of
the first year of her life, I was a stranger to her at her first birthday
party. I hope that she and I will become
friends in 2013. She’s such a smart kid;
reminding me a lot of myself as a child.
And, I recognize that she, and all the other children, are the world’s
future, so I have a responsibility to help her achieve her dreams – or at least
get her on the road to doing that.
Maybe, in 2013, I’ll try and stretch my writing
wings; maybe take a stab at adding to the genres I dabble in. I have a long list of to-do writing projects,
so the year will be busy.
I’m rambling, I know, but, that’s the way I feel at
this moment. I just ramble until I
stumble across something that interests me.
Always have and I always will. So,
I bid a fond farewell to 2012 and a hearty welcome to 2013. I don’t know what lies ahead, but I think the
journey will be fascinating. I hope all
of you will come along with me.
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