Nothing like a sleepless night sitting in front of a Photoshop window to get you thinking, right?
2011 is one of those years where the hits keep on coming. And we're all feeling it, I know we are. I've never been one to believe in prophecy or anything, but when you look at all the stuff that's happened in the last year, you do tend to wonder if the End of Days really is up and coming soon. You know, ignore the celebrity deaths for a moment- your Amy Winehouses and Dwayne McDuffies and what have you- and take a glance at the big picture, here. The United States is running out of money. I mean, for the love of God, Apple has more money than the US Government. Congress, President Obama, and several scores of other politicians are trying to figure out where to cut the fat without getting too close to their own wallets, while the CEO of Nintendo (Yes, the video game company) was willing to cut his own salary in half in lieu of an upcoming decline in his company's sales, rather than screw his own employees. On top of this, we have tsunamis and tornadoes and earthquakes just coming out of nowhere all over the world, taking thousands of lives, and there are still nutjobs in Norway and here in the US who still seem to have it in their head that the world can afford to lose a few more and go gun crazy. People are losing their money, their jobs, and their lives, and there isn't a damn soul on this Earth that can explain why, apparently. Well, guess what. I can tell you why. I can tell you why Mother Nature is destroying entire cities, why what was once considered the richest country in the world now has barely a penny to their name, and why Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home.
Because it's been happening since the beginning of civilization.
It looks bad. It is bad. But not a damn thing we're going through is anything new to the world. It may be new to us, to our generation and maybe even the generation before us, but empires rise and fall, storms roll in and out, and people- even famous ones- are mortal. Is it hard? Of course it is! I've had to watch my dad struggle for the last year working two jobs and just barely scraping by enough to support him and his household, while I've known others to sit around with nothing but the breeze in their hair have their whole lives handed to them. Couples have split up, jobs have been lost, people have been hurt. We're all overwhelmed, here, the lot of us. But it's not all bad. Despite all our family's financial struggles in the past, we managed to get up enough cash for one last family vacation. My niece's first family vacation, where we celebrated her second birthday. My best friend is starting his first year of college this year. Another good friend moved into his first apartment this summer. Hell, we even got a puppy!
My point is, there are some big, bad things out there right now. The big and bad kind that, no matter how hard we try, we can't dodge. That's a fact. But you know, cliche as it sounds, it's the little things. The family vacations and the puppies and the second birthdays. That's what we need to keep looking at. They'll be what will tide us over until the storm passes. They're what give us hope.
I think we could all use a bit of that right about now, don't you?
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