Happy New Year!
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2006
Just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone who reads this a Happy New Year. The New Years worldwide celebration is a truly outstanding phenomenon. I honestly feel that the world is as close to utopia on New Years Eve as it will ever get.
2005 was a pretty monumental year for both myself and the world around me. In 2005, I graduated college, with honors no less. If you knew my high school academic achievements, or lack thereof, you'd be surprised too.
I moved to Austin with my girlfriend of 3 years. While she attends College, I have taken my seat in the back of the lazy train. I remain unemployed, though I absolutely MUST find a job in the next few weeks. Anya and I have enjoyed exploring Austin. Some of our favorite locales are eating establishments and movie houses...and in case of the Alamo Drafthouse, both at the same time.
At the same time, I also moved away from nearly all of my friends and family in Denton, Dallas, and Lewisville. Although it sucks to be away from them, I hope they know that they're often in my thoughts. I also hope that they know that distance is just an illusion, and that I hope we can all become closer to one another despite the tiny 3 hour drive.
My Aunt Sherry valiantly battled cancer, yet couldn't quite defeat it ultimately. Although cancer may have taken her life, it didn't ever take her spirit. She took that with her, and left enough of it with those of us left behind to keep us going.
My sister had a new baby, born a couple days after Christmas. Nearly all of the death that has come in my family has been bookended by the birth of a child. When my grandfather died, my niece J was born. When my father died, my niece C was born. When my Aunt passed, my niece M was born. Where one life ends, a new one begins. They write songs about this very thing.
In world wide events...
2005 came on the back of an Asian tsunami which killed hundreds of thousands of people all across Asia.
2005 brought one of the bloodiest years of the Iraqi War. The American death toll approaches 2200. The list of injured service members stands somewhere above 16,000. The Iraqi death toll is estimated to be anywhere from 30,000 to 60,000. Some say higher than that...
Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita ripped through the Gulf Coast region, exposing ugly truths about the wide divide between the haves and the have nots. The ugly under belly of government, whether it be state or federal, was ripped open for all the world to see. Here it was 2005, and the most powerful government the world has ever seen couldn't take care of those that needed it the most.
That same government found itself battling scandal after scandal. Spying without a warrant, indictments handed out to government officials for outing a CIA agent as political payback, shady stock practices, dumping the weight of Abu Ghraib onto the lower ranking soldiers, clandestine jails with torturous ways, self imposed blindness to the plight of Niger and the Sudan, and finding itself on the wrong side of a moral issue regarding an unfortunate situation in Florida.
The Israeli government evacuated its own people from one of its settlements in the Gaza strip.
The people of Britain had one of their subways bombed by religious fanatics.
Many people inexplicably spent more time reading about Michael Jackson's trial than spent it reading about important global events. Celebrity gossip seemed to occupy more headlines than earthquakes in Kashmir, racial riots in France, mudslides in Brazil, and famine in Niger and the Sudan.
Big business firms once again dominated the headlines. GM layed off tens of thousands of employees. Big Oil took more money into their pockets by taking more money right out of yours. The NYC Transit Strike revealed just how in bed the press, big business, and governments are. Where most public polls showed support for the strike, people like Bloomberg, and news agencies like Fox News and the New York Post labelled the strikers as "greedy thugs" and calling for their instant imprisonment.
Yes, sometimes it's really easy to look around and be discouraged about the state of affairs. I've always been one to look at the way things are going and wonder what kind of path we're on. I wonder if this whole thing is salvageable.
To be completely honest, I'm not sure. Some of these very problems seem so monstrous. As if they're beasts that cannot be destroyed. And these problems seem so huge that it's hard to glean anything positive from them. But if anything, 2005 was a year that showed us problems worth solving.
A few weeks ago, I decided to watch "The Two Towers." This last time I saw it, I think I finally truly understood the movie and the message it was trying to get across. So I wish to usher in 2006 with a prayer for brighter days.
------------------------------------------
It's rarely been said better than this:
From "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
Frodo: I can't do this Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo...and it's worth fighting for.
----------------------------------------------
If there's a silver lining to the issues we faced in 2005, it's that the under belly of so many issues came up and placed these very problems right in our laps. Hurricanes come through revealing the massive poverty that still exists in our country. That's a problem worth fighting for. A war rages on in the middle east. Ending it is a task worth fighting, no matter how uphill the battle seems. Severing our dependence on Big Oil is a battle worth fighting. Ending cancer, destroying HIV and AIDS, holding our governments accountable...they're all worth fighting. As I said earlier, I am an uncle again. My nieces and nephews, and all the nieces and nephews of the world...the cancer patients and the patients fighting terminal diseases...the caregivers of the world...those that feel as if they don't have a voice... they're the good in the world. And they're definitely worth fighting for.
matt out
Just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone who reads this a Happy New Year. The New Years worldwide celebration is a truly outstanding phenomenon. I honestly feel that the world is as close to utopia on New Years Eve as it will ever get.
2005 was a pretty monumental year for both myself and the world around me. In 2005, I graduated college, with honors no less. If you knew my high school academic achievements, or lack thereof, you'd be surprised too.
I moved to Austin with my girlfriend of 3 years. While she attends College, I have taken my seat in the back of the lazy train. I remain unemployed, though I absolutely MUST find a job in the next few weeks. Anya and I have enjoyed exploring Austin. Some of our favorite locales are eating establishments and movie houses...and in case of the Alamo Drafthouse, both at the same time.
At the same time, I also moved away from nearly all of my friends and family in Denton, Dallas, and Lewisville. Although it sucks to be away from them, I hope they know that they're often in my thoughts. I also hope that they know that distance is just an illusion, and that I hope we can all become closer to one another despite the tiny 3 hour drive.
My Aunt Sherry valiantly battled cancer, yet couldn't quite defeat it ultimately. Although cancer may have taken her life, it didn't ever take her spirit. She took that with her, and left enough of it with those of us left behind to keep us going.
My sister had a new baby, born a couple days after Christmas. Nearly all of the death that has come in my family has been bookended by the birth of a child. When my grandfather died, my niece J was born. When my father died, my niece C was born. When my Aunt passed, my niece M was born. Where one life ends, a new one begins. They write songs about this very thing.
In world wide events...
2005 came on the back of an Asian tsunami which killed hundreds of thousands of people all across Asia.
2005 brought one of the bloodiest years of the Iraqi War. The American death toll approaches 2200. The list of injured service members stands somewhere above 16,000. The Iraqi death toll is estimated to be anywhere from 30,000 to 60,000. Some say higher than that...
Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita ripped through the Gulf Coast region, exposing ugly truths about the wide divide between the haves and the have nots. The ugly under belly of government, whether it be state or federal, was ripped open for all the world to see. Here it was 2005, and the most powerful government the world has ever seen couldn't take care of those that needed it the most.
That same government found itself battling scandal after scandal. Spying without a warrant, indictments handed out to government officials for outing a CIA agent as political payback, shady stock practices, dumping the weight of Abu Ghraib onto the lower ranking soldiers, clandestine jails with torturous ways, self imposed blindness to the plight of Niger and the Sudan, and finding itself on the wrong side of a moral issue regarding an unfortunate situation in Florida.
The Israeli government evacuated its own people from one of its settlements in the Gaza strip.
The people of Britain had one of their subways bombed by religious fanatics.
Many people inexplicably spent more time reading about Michael Jackson's trial than spent it reading about important global events. Celebrity gossip seemed to occupy more headlines than earthquakes in Kashmir, racial riots in France, mudslides in Brazil, and famine in Niger and the Sudan.
Big business firms once again dominated the headlines. GM layed off tens of thousands of employees. Big Oil took more money into their pockets by taking more money right out of yours. The NYC Transit Strike revealed just how in bed the press, big business, and governments are. Where most public polls showed support for the strike, people like Bloomberg, and news agencies like Fox News and the New York Post labelled the strikers as "greedy thugs" and calling for their instant imprisonment.
Yes, sometimes it's really easy to look around and be discouraged about the state of affairs. I've always been one to look at the way things are going and wonder what kind of path we're on. I wonder if this whole thing is salvageable.
To be completely honest, I'm not sure. Some of these very problems seem so monstrous. As if they're beasts that cannot be destroyed. And these problems seem so huge that it's hard to glean anything positive from them. But if anything, 2005 was a year that showed us problems worth solving.
A few weeks ago, I decided to watch "The Two Towers." This last time I saw it, I think I finally truly understood the movie and the message it was trying to get across. So I wish to usher in 2006 with a prayer for brighter days.
------------------------------------------
It's rarely been said better than this:
From "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
Frodo: I can't do this Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo...and it's worth fighting for.
----------------------------------------------
If there's a silver lining to the issues we faced in 2005, it's that the under belly of so many issues came up and placed these very problems right in our laps. Hurricanes come through revealing the massive poverty that still exists in our country. That's a problem worth fighting for. A war rages on in the middle east. Ending it is a task worth fighting, no matter how uphill the battle seems. Severing our dependence on Big Oil is a battle worth fighting. Ending cancer, destroying HIV and AIDS, holding our governments accountable...they're all worth fighting. As I said earlier, I am an uncle again. My nieces and nephews, and all the nieces and nephews of the world...the cancer patients and the patients fighting terminal diseases...the caregivers of the world...those that feel as if they don't have a voice... they're the good in the world. And they're definitely worth fighting for.
matt out
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