Off the Cuff 2006-01

2006 ... Here we come....ready or not. Seniors Choice January 2006 - Joel Rickard - Going back just a few years to 1999, the front line news in our local Daily Courier (that just turned 100 years old) was "World braces for Y2K" along with a letter to the editor: "A wish for humanity in the New Year". In 2003 the top story of the year was ' Drought-like conditions spark fire of century'. I am writing this column three days before the end of this year and all indications are there will be another Earth Shattering story about something somewhere in the world that is some type of local or global catastrophe. However, that does not stop me from wishing everyone a Wonderful and Healthy New Year. 2006 will be "The Year of The Dog" and the predictions of Eugenia Last in the eVentLife from the Courier claims you should "never underestimate the power of the Dog". She is not the only one of us that has a "wait and see" attitude as far as what is in store for us this year. With a Federal Election that should turn neighbor against neighbor and the wonderful world of technology going nuts with gizmo's and electronic Big Brother becoming the 'Camel in the Tent' personified, I am yearning for the simple things more and more. I really don't want to know about riots in Australia. Australia to me is a wonderful place that I had wanted to visit along with New Zealand. The Orient on the verge of a major war along with the growing population around India and Pakistan also makes that trip through the Panama Canal something to be put on the back, back burner. Has the whole world decided to smoke pot? From the number of these "grow-ops" the demand for this stuff must have really increased. Could it be from the stress of knowing in a nano-second about a family getting run over by a train in Balzac Alberta? Or is it the few hundred more million people on the planet trying to make a living with the cost of an automobile today averaging more than the cost of a house a few years ago. We had a motor home a few years back (a giant step up from the camping in a tent we used to do) so we could travel around and see the innocence of our province and play camper, get covered in smoke and be agog at seeing falling stars. Now to fill up a tank of gas to go fishing at a lake where people now go to party and race off road motorcycles is not in our plans either. It is not Bah-Humbug. It is not being negative. It is just living and trying to cope or adjust in the year 2006. Things change and we must change with them. There is really not much we can do as the next generation takes on the responsibility for the earth and the control of its destiny. What our children and our children's children face today is right out of a science fiction or Stephen King novel. It is now reality. My prediction for the year 2006 is based on a simple fact. As the stress plates under the ocean have so very clearly demonstrated, human kind will reach a breaking point and demand a tremendous change. We all know it...especially those of us old timers. We know it cannot continue on; it being the way the world is developing at this rate. Something has got to give. The pressure must be released.

 

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