Happy New Year – I hope

I’m writing this on New Year’s day.  It’s the morning after the New Year’s Eve party on the QM2 and most people are either in bed or sleep walking their way to the food line.  A few awake looking guests with stamina who bypassed the masses and messes of the evening celebration were making purposeful movement as if they had a plan.  I do not have a plan today other than to stay awake long enough to earn a long nap, and a day filled with nothing other than writing this messy monologue voicing my anxiety for 2016 as a year of uncertainty and surprise.

A little more on Cunard – QM2.

Last night was not my cup of tea.  Large crowds, pushing and shoving, no room on the dance floor to breathe let alone dance.  People ready to wrestle for our seats, using our table for their own purposes, and the unintelligible social director spilling a glass full of water on my tux and dance shoes with only the slightest gesture of remorse made for a fitful night.  And I’m not sure why so many people seem to be really happy that the New Year has arrived, cheering and howling as if they have just won the NYC marathon.   To be sure, I was happy in my own right, happy to be alive and well, and well off enough to be on a famous cruise ship with a lovely dance partner without a lot of worry or stress.  At the same time, 2016 brings uncertainty at many levels including how the world will shape up in an era of increased terrorism and reduced government vigilance….God help us survive Obama!

Well, the QM2 and everyone that you come into contact with: it’s all about money.   Pull a soft drink from the frig – it cost you.  Go to a show with a vocalist – meet her after and buy her latest CD.  Go to a lecture and get invited to a book signing reception after you fork over a month’s salary for the book. Buy the junk selling on the ship and make it your junk.  Nothing goes unnoticed on the QM2 – it is all recorded on that terminal bill that amounts to as much or more than the cruise itself.  These are the hidden costs of these types of cruises.  Charge me more upfront and I will accept the costs upfront.  I’m happy with that arrangement anytime.

2016: A Year of Uncertainty

I really liked 2015.  I’m sad it’s over.  It was a good year.  Of course, everything is relative.  A few injuries, a few minor hiccups at work and at life, some good and some not so good dance competitions, a new grandchild who will carry on the Easa name, happy interactions with friends and family, no BAD news regarding my health, it was a good year, a very good year.  What will 2016 bring?  The uncertainty of not knowing what will happen is both exhilarating and worrisome.

Every year that the body grows old brings upon its challenges.  Cellular mechanisms are understandably tired of fighting off the poisons that you inhale and ingest and it’s only a matter of time, luck, genetics before your cellular electronics become overwhelmed.  Not even Steve Jobs could come up with a gadget to reinvigorate your cellular metabolism.  Apoptosis or programed cell death is a biological reality, whether you come from the working class or from royalty.  You are probably better off coming from the working class who has survived the ravages and challenges of the world ala Darwin’s survival of the fittest.  Contrast that with some rich aloof pseudo intellectual self-righteous zealot who surrounds himself or herself with a protective bubble far removed from the day to day reality of the masses of struggling humans. 

Anyway, the message gleaned from the above is to live now, don’t put off what you want to do another minute….

Back to the Future:

For some reason - last night, a weary and frightening vision of 2016 emerged into my psyche as one characterized by deteriorating world order with the expansion of routine terror events fluidly oozing into American cities to the point where they are no longer shocking to Americans.  I believe the masses believe our country is no longer the world power we were; the question is how many American terrorist induced deaths will it take before will will rise up in protest and revolt?????   Obama’s latest feckless sermon to the country belies any previous inference that we are finally responding appropriately to the ever-present threat that is festering like a volcano in the Middle East.  Unlike Viet Nam where they have forgiven us for the atrocities that we were responsible for, Middle Easterners will never let go of their view that America is the Great Satan!

Another uncertainty is who will emerge as president.  Unfortunately, to my dismay, there has never been such a rotten field of contestants.   How can the country vote for such a lying self-serving witch?  How can the country vote for a loose cannon bully who is as spontaneous and irresponsible in his words as his opponent is calculated?  But maybe the Big D is a democrat conspiracy, designed to insure that the big H is our next pres…  It wouldn’t surprise me if H paid off a few million Dems from the Clinton foundation to identify themselves as Republicans in order to prop up the Big D to where he is in the poles.  Well the good news is that we will get two for the price of one.  While H schemes up her stew of new federal regulations to impose on the American people, B will run free to philander and pillage like he is best suited to do.  Thank God he is at least a vegetarian. 

Predictions for the Future:

I predict that all of those pundits in the business of predicting the future will be wrong and that there will be a number of shocking surprises for us this EVEN year, the year of 2016.