2014 Bring it!

In 1963, I was a junior at Robert E. Lee; back from Europe for three years.  In 1973, I was a Viet Nam veteran, back from the war three years. In 1983, I was a claims adjuster with a drinking problem, three years after the first marriage.  In 1993, I was a claims supervisor, three years after Hurricane Hugo and six years sober.  In 2003, I was at the City of San Antonio, three years away from retiring to go chase Katrina and other storms. Today, 2013, I am gathering up my life after three years I would rather forget.

But things are as different now as they were through the foregoing five decades of life on Earth.  I have my friends; in the Fellowship, in the Arts, in the Media and in mobile home parks all over America.  My private relationship is with my 8 pets—far more serene and manageable than any one human, I can tell you!

And I have my friends on Facebook; the global village than Marshal McLuhan envisioned so long ago…before PC’s and the World Wide Web.  You are such a diverse collection of Humans!  Some of you I know very well on the ground, some of you are recent acquaintances and some of you I know only through this window to the planet at large.

Some of you are just out and out lunatics (Oh! Throwing stones in glass houses again!); some of you are too sane for your own good.  You can figure out for yourselves which is which (Do NOT succumb to denial on this point!).

Social networking is changing us all; indeed, it is changing the world.  It is better than Star Trek’s talking computer; we are instantly informed and aware of each other and we are all reaching out of our small private boxes to find information and ideas to bring back to the village square…to share with our friends.

I have had a Facebook account for four or five years, in that time it has grown from an amusing dalliance to plugged-into-my-cortex vital.

In the guise of entertaining ourselves, we have grown together, as a family grows together.  We learn, delight and grieve at the fortunes and follies of each other. 

We need each other.  

Let 2014 come on!  Bring it!  The fiscal cliff is no more daunting than the Suez Canal Crisis of 1956.  And who, but a few history buffs among us, remember that calamity? 

I have high hopes for the New Year.  I have high hopes for all of you out there in my fabulous Ether-ether Land!  Happy New Year and God bless us…everyone!