This Year

I've been pondering about my New Year message for this blog since, oh, last Christmas Eve. First, I wanted to write about the past year, cherishing the good and spitting out the bad with some positive vibes for 2010... blah blah. Yawn. I fell into a too-bored-to-type-that-guff funk, before I sparked up the laptop. Then, with the New Year snow, my thoughts turned to white landscapes, fresh beginnings and clean breaks...a blank canvas to customise the future... Shut your eyes and imagine a future where you are a better writer/plumber/lollipop lady, forgiving yourself and others; living for a brighter day...
...but that left me feeling a bit we-are-the-worldish.
Then my heating broke down and The Child and I spent a couple of fun freezing days snuggling under four massive duvets, with hot chocolate and dumpling soup for comfort. So then of course the blog was going to be about loving where you are and, who you're with and, how the home should really be where the heart is and, lets pray that its the same for everyone around the world,la la la....
Still kinda we-are-the-worldish. I thought it might make for a good blog piece but, I ended up feeling a bit 'meh' about it after a few days. Then the earth broke away from the foundations of Haiti leaving an estimated two hundred thousand dead. Let me type that again: two hundred thousand. On that same day I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road and went to a young mother's funeral. Somehow, they all seemed connected.
You know, We Are The World is not such a bad mantra for the New Year. I mean there's a reason its a popular song. It resonates with folk. And it's timeless. Our many differences only serve to emphasis our universal humanity. Can't argue with that. Why, it's the reason we all paused to cheer for the two year old Haitian boy rescued from the rubble where many might have died. Still, the reports of rioting in Haiti frighten me.
Cormac McCarthy's, The Road is a terrifying and stirring warning of what could happen if we choose to ignore our shared humanity. I beg you to read it. Then watch the film. Then read it again.
Finally, have you realised how hard it is to find a dry eye at a funeral when the children start to speak of their departed parent? It is heartbreaking to witness a child mourn his/her parent and yet the fact that even a detached onlooker can be moved by this gives me hope. And somewhere in there is my New Year message. Thank you for visiting my blog. I wish you a meaningful 2010.