Gripped in the iron fist that is 2009...

... I find that I'm pretty much in the same place I was in a year ago, or two weeks ago. That doesn't mean that nothing has changed for me, because it has, but I swear I don't remember the last time I wasn't thinking about the future, and just how scary the whole thing is. That's why the new year scares me, a bit. It's the unknown, in it's own way. Anything could happen, really. Many of us are worried about these 21st Century Challenges, and we should be. We have to be. It seems we don't have a choice, and I don't think we ever did, but some of us are so stubborn we won't look at a thermometer and say, "Yup, it's gettin' hotter." But I'm also looking at smaller challenges, presented by this shift into the full weight of the 21st Century. I tend to care about the smaller things. To me, they aren't small. Well, some of them. I'm worried more about whether or not I'm ever going to sell a book than what I'm throwing away, or what I'm eating. And before you say anything, I know--it's terrible. I'm a bad person. But I can't help it, and I figure there's no point lying to myself. In that same vein, I can't help but point out that you have to write a book before you can sell one. You can take that same rule and apply it to these challenges that we will face in the upcoming years. Such as this: before you can fix the problem, you have to admit it's there. We're doing better with this. After all, most people are agreeing that that thermometer means it really is gettin' pretty toasty in here.

Also, and this is aimed more at me than anyone else, if you don't think about these problems, if you don't admit they exist and address them, then there's no point in thinking about that book, because you may never get the chance to write it. I guess I'm saying I'm a hypocrite. But I knew that. But you have to look at some of these problems with a mindset of, "what will make people care about this?" Such as my writing problem, and everyone's employment problem. As if it weren't enough to see that the world is crashing down around us. I can bet you that there are a lot of people in my English class who are a lot more worried about their research papers than they are about climate change right now. It's like the guy in the movies who goes in after money to a place he knows he will die, just so he can leave the world a rich man. Can he ever use that gold he got?

No. He's dead. Duh.

But he was more focused on the money than his own life. That's not universally true, but people are scared, and people are stubborn, and people don't wanna believe that this stuff is serious. You have to put it in terms they can see, they can believe in, they can understand. I'm not really sure what it all means... all this... I'm ranting, which I think maybe you're supposed to do on a blog. Who knows. What I do know--it's a scary place out there, and it's only getting scarier. It's up to us to be the ones with the swords who aren't afraid of just about anything.