A Year in Review

In case you haven't noticed, I've been loathe to blog this year. It's been about ten months or so since my last post.

I still keep track of my daily traffic, and I think the most surprising thing to me is how many people still visit here, and for that I sincerely thank you. Rest assured, my break was by design, not, as some of you appear to think, a result of switching over to Facebook status updates as an outlet for my creative juices.

Well, here I am now, 5 hours and 40 minutes from a brand new year, and I've decided to revisit this blogging thing once again. Let's start it out by reviewing the past year, as viewed from where I'm sitting.

Let's be honest, it wasn't great. Lots of friends and loved ones either went belly-up due to the economy, or came pretty damn close to it. Some of them have all but given up; others are limping along on nothing but faith and hope, and I mean in God, not in this ridiculous President we have.

We saw a seismic upheaval of sorts in Washington, what with the general rejection of the Pelosi-led House of Representatives, and its replacement with a cry-baby-led Republican House. Some of my conservative friends are literally beside themselves with joy over this turn of events. I'm not. Nothing of any import will change on our plebeian level, and now Obama will have a pack of scapegoats to blame for any of his failings as he sets himself up for an almost-inevitable win in 2012.

So in summary, the world is kinda in the pooper right now, and there's not a lot of reason to expect it to get much better anytime soon.

But you know what? I'm in a great mood anyway. I really don't even know why.

It hasn't necessarily been a gangbusters year for me, either, on a personal level, but it hasn't been horrible either. I spent the bulk of the year living in the sparse backwoods of eastern Turkey, and then came home to the States to find that things were a little slow workwise, and had to make necessary- and not altogether pleasant- adjustments as a result. In previous years, this might have put me on the verge of a breakdown, but I think I found some sort of zenlike serenity and inner peace out there in Turkey, if I may indulge in a little self-introspection here, because frankly, I feel pretty damn good right now, and no- I haven't been drinking.

Or maybe I'm just not fully aware yet of how close I am to the brink of absolute destitution. Oh well, time will tell, right?

Anyway, I'm the kind of guy to look forward, so if you have had a miserable year yourself, and you see no hope and no reason to celebrate tonight as the clock ticks down to midnight, well, let me try to offer you some words of reassurance: This is all temporary. And we- you included- will all get through it. This year? Maybe. The year after? Almost certainly. Within 5 years? Oh hell yes, undoubtedly.

Can you hang on for 5 years until things are better and we all have some tangible indications of hope to hang on to?

You might think you can't, but you can. We all can. Hang in there, blogfans, better times are a-coming.