Happy New Year!

I am back in New Haven after an almost two-week sojourn back in Pennsylvania, our hometown of York. I am glad that I do not live there anymore. I feel it is so backward looking and parochial which I have always said about the place, but it seems so much more pronounced when I visit. That should not be a bad thing. I am really hung up on all the baggage that accompanies a place. I really miss the old homestead, not so much physically as emotionally. It is just a house, but holds countless memories. We lived there 25 years and that is a long time in the scheme of things. We raised two children, two dogs, had lots of parties, the highlight being the annual Memorial Day pancake breakfast including cookouts, games of badminton and ping pong on the driveway. The people who bought the house have not changed anything outside. I am sure the inside is different - it has to be since it reflected our taste and not there taste. I miss the garden, vegetable, herb and flower. How fun it was to walk out through the yard and pick some tomatoes, warm from the sun, or fresh herbs to include in a recipe. I miss our dark purple butterfly bush, which really does attract butterflies and our 24-year old Christmas tree. Our first Christmas in the house ('83) we bought a live tree, but did not get to plant it until a February thaw. I was convinced I had killed it - but low and behold, that spring it sprouted new shoots and is now taller than the house. So... I miss the house, but I miss more what it represents, wonderful memories that are clouded by growing old, unmet expectations and feelings of betrayal.

I connected with an old college friend who lives in DC. For several years now, we have been meeting at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore for an annual visit. The art is incredible and it does, I think, what art is supposed to do when you see it hanging on a wall or otherwise appropriately displayed. I feel very happy when I leave. It is a great space, but the art is so inspiring in that it represents what people who I think are generally disaffected and disenfranchised from a society and culture are truly capable of accomplishing. There thoughts and emotions are expressed through the art and they are truly saying fuck you to whomever looks at those emotions. And it dwarfs all of those things that Americans, with our consumeristic obsessions, think is the honest and true measure of a person. This is what is important to me and hence is the only thing that matters.

I am not sure what the new year holds for me and the people who are most important to me. It certainly bodes well that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is above 9000, or that in exactly 15 days we will have a new president who seems to understand the gravity of the situation, but then maybe not. It might be business as usual which indeed is a sad thing. I am sure we will see spiking gasoline prices and more calamitous weather events and continuing financial and economic meltdowns and I just read something yesterday on the Truthout website that the US Army War College is predicting increasing amounts of civil unrest in America and that the resources to maintain peace and order are strained because most of the National Guard soldiers are deployed in Afganistan and Iraq. Is not that a fine situation to find ourselves in as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close. And this all on the backdrop of most of my son's Yale friends galavanting around the world during the semester break - as though it is a birthright. I just don't get it.

We woke up. We actually woke up and like in the morning when you are in bed that is the easy part - you just open your eyes. I have been driving around for several years with a decal on my car - Perhaps you have seen it around. The ubiquitous red circle with a W and / through the W. And the statement, "Wake me up when it is over." Now the real challenge begins as Mr Obama and Crew start addressing the sorry state of affairs that America has become in our quest for global hegemony.

And I have to congratulate all Americans who voted for positive change in this country. Perhaps more of you realized that the non-negotiable life style we have enjoyed in this country for several generations is not really sustainable than I gave credit for. We all can't continue living in McMansions, driving SUVs everywhere, commuting by ourselves in big cars, shopping, consuming etc. We are maxed out on our credit cards and the world is collapsing around us and we are working harder and harder, demanding more and more and approaching the calamity of peak oil and climate change. The world, nature really, is trying to tell us something and we better wake up and start acting like the responsible adults we are all supposed to be.

The party is over vis a vis the financial meltdown where for some reason people thought they could get something for nothing. It really does not work that way - and I will be interested to see what the financial engineers come up with next. I am so disappointed that gasoline prices at the pump have fallen below two dollars a gallon. My sister called from Texas the day after the election and said, "damn, I wish McCain had won. I am sure gas would be this low if the Republicans had maintained control."

And I realize that yelling really does not do anything. I am tired of being yelled at. I am all for slowing down, smelling the roses, playing a card game, drinking tea in the middle of the afternoon, going for a walk or riding my bike, exercising more, getting the garden catalogs out to decide what to grow next summer, taking a nap, cleaning out a closet and only having two pairs of shoes, reading another book, things that are sustainable. And I can now say that I am pround to be an American.

First Posting

I asked my wife today how this is done. She had no idea so I googled and here it is.
Could not have been easier. That being said.........
I am afraid for this country. When will we wake up and realize that how we live is no longer
sustainable. We are sleeping walking into the 21st century and all the signs point to not waking up. It is as though the whole country throws up their hands and goes shopping, stopping first at the Starbucks for a mocha latte espresso with half soy and skim, wearing the correct fashion and driving the right car. It is so sad, so incredibly sad.