My friends, the column is strong, as are the people who stand nearby it. Despite the cold, the snow, the adversity of finals and foibles, things are going along apace towards progress.
Finals are finished and I'm looking forward to the next set of classes. I'm more anxious to see my grades than I have been in a long time. Guess that's the hope of improvement speaking. I'm very thankful for all the opportunities I've been graced by, and I am astounded to look at my progress and see some.
The world at large is getting smaller. Where would we be without the internet? I wonder. With so much information available, it is a very exciting time for someone like me, who is obsessed with perspective and words.
My plan for the holiday is to send gifts, find work, play music, clean house, and just play. Oh, and the cross-country skis are being used again, mostly at night so far. Such sojourns are good time to catch up on all that thinking there is to do. Bas-relief shadow and color of nightscapes make for interesting backdrops on which to post musings.
Most of my thoughts lately are focused on destroying my costs of living in favor of unselfish-sufficiency; though pragmatic matters of gentility's manners may prevent a pure reckoning of my reasoning. I have been craving fried chicken for some reason...
The Anchorage economy is sheltered so far, though I often think that will abruptly change whenever it changes. Though, maybe people just can't help but be addicted to a little doom and gloom, and not really that much will change even as we watch all the financial balls dropping (or sucking back in, if you know what I mean). With the economy showing some primary indicators of continued job loss, unpredictable changes in rates of commodity and currency valuations, and with the omnipresent bandwagon of doomsday scenarios (did someone step in Y2K?, cause there is something ripe-smelling coming from the general direction of media and other affluent quagmires), all indicators are that humans should remain being humans and not voluntarily discorporate as much as we do.
Yes, I'm talking about war. There is a lot I'll work towards in the coming year, but they will all be things within my reach. War is something that words can fight against by winning over the tide of people in the pool party of Nationalism we're all participants of. If you build it, they will come. If peace is sexy, prudence will come around to join the party.
So I hope not to see military actions. For far too long have economic interests dictated policy in the United States. Without the many voices of dissent in Washington, we've all agreed on certain radically destructive things for a couple of generations now (the munitions factory, the trickles of the economy, the hopeless pursuit of chasing evil with lobbying dollars, to name a few). Without the chorus of anger and despair having voice, the equilibrium of policy will ever be deaf to reality. Until ideas wield battles, the decor of Congress will strike banally bland notes to our eyes.
Despite wealth's popularity, I don't fear the Earth's ability to cope with our pusuit of it - I fear only for the difficulties our collective progeny will face. I know how much despair can sting, and I'd hate for our unwillingness to grant them a Sea Change be a tarnish on the perfection of our legacy. Unfortunately for all of us, the only cross on the map representing a doorway to economic salvation is the most personal and obvious of beginnings: We have to start at home, holding the whole of humanity in our minds as we day to day do things. Then we take our lucrative proficiency to work with us, and strike down the corridors of destruction. Difficult part is, we'll have to rely on what few avenues of beautification we currently have to sustain us while the demolition and construction occur. In the past, this difficult part has cheifly kept us and change apart, since no one wants less when given the option of more.
More is no longer an option.
Please live simply, that others may simply live, and please keep your scope right where you can see.
