Calm Yo Self

For the average person, based on average income, ideals, education, etc… Have we reached a point where you cannot predict your own future?

That is to say, have we finally come to a road that is so dark and ominous that we aren’t sure if we pass through it, we’ll eventually see the light?

In terms of perspective: Yes, my situation could be worse. Obviously, that’s not what I’m arguing. What I mean is… Christ. How do I say this?

Can you predict at this point that you aren’t going to continue on in a life that is entirely different than the one you have known so far?

We’ve heard rumblings of this already in retirement savings scares and terrorism. But what if its just going to keep on going, without any up sides.

For instance, generally, real estate was known to be an investment. Can you really call it that now? If I were to buy a home right now, would I be in over my head in just a few short months, weeks, years? Will the prices keep falling down? Or will it magically find its way upward again, just like we want to believe? Whose to say that just because they aren’t making any more land, doesn’t mean land will be of value to us in a few years down the line. Maybe land will become a noose around our necks, much like the SUV I bought just 4 short years ago. How will I ever trade that in now? Will real estate in cities or towns without a public transit system because just plain USELESS?

As in the words of someone close to me: “We’ve been through ups and downs in the economy before. This wont be the first or the last time. Things will change.”

Will it?

Last night, I got out of bed because I couldn’t get the Channel 7 news anchors voice out of my head: “Analysts are now saying we could be facing $12-$15 per gallon for gasoline, sooner than we ever imagined.”

When I walked down the darkened hall to my mom’s room, I quietly inquired if she was still awake and told her about what I heard, what was keeping me from sleep.

“They wouldn’t let it get that far.” I guess she imagined, like I, that if that were to happen, the economy as we know it would end, and it would be an all out war on humanity across the nation.

But answer me this: Who is THEY and WHAT ARE THEY GONNA DO ABOUT IT?

I mean, life as we know it is changing, whether we have allowed ourselves to see this yet or not. And I’m not saying run for your nearest bomb shelter. I used to think this was all due to Bush and Oil Mongers and all that I saw wrong with the Middle East. I used to think that we’d all just hang in there until a new voice, new hope came into office and saved us from all this tyranny. But let’s be real. We’re here because we put ourselves here. We are dependent on oil and energy and plastic and bullshit. It’s what’s for dinner. It’s what makes us, US. I apologize for yesterday’s alarmist blog entry. I don’t mean to be Debbie Downer and start freaking people out. In fact, the future can be hopeful. I have a strong faith that it can.

Let’s find the hope together. Shall we?

For example, maybe people like me will be working from home next year. Maybe if everyone who has a job like mine does this, we’ll cut some demand so that others in public/social service jobs or dealing with customers face to face can have some relief at the pump. And maybe I’ll be able to have a child and raise it from my own place, or whatever, hell, maybe I’ll be stuck at my moms – but it’s not really that bad there. There’s all this land and privacy and coziness that can only come form the place that you call home.

Maybe solar panels and windmills will crop up, not just at your corporate headquarters, but your neighbor’s home. M and I have had lengthy discussions about this. How we’d like to build a home and use solar heat and build a windmill for the backyard. We’d have a compost going somewhere further off in the land. No, we’re not kidding. We’d log our own acreage for heating in a wood stove for a while, until we couldn’t do that any longer. By then, there would (cross your fingers) hopefully be some new technology around and in place to heat your homes. We’d even have a garden and a pig – that’s M’s idea. OBVIOUSLY.

By the time we run out of trees on our land, maybe THEY will have done something amazing in the field of energy and heat, something we’re not sure we see yet. There is a genius in every decade. One is out there now. Let’s listen to him. Or her.

And while we’re at it, maybe we’ll all be growing our own organic vegetables and requiring that people like Brad Pitt or Paris Hilton have to tithe their million dollar earnings into reusable energy, recycling, social responsibility. Rich people are going to need to pitch in here or my scenario just wont work.

The world’s changing norms and landscapes will always change and probably have to. Things are not obviously as they once were, even 75 years ago. If you’re not changing, you’re standing still. And if you’re standing still, then you might as well give up. And I tell you what: I may sound like a quitter, like a scared biatch – but I’m far from it.

And I cant let the fear and anxiety of uncontrollable circumstances run my life. But I can let it challenge me to rethink, be creative, find new ways to endure and persevere in the face of all the crimes against humanity.

See.

I’m still me. And in evidence of that, I present to you two very special Today’s:

1. Today’s Email in Response to my Blog: “Calm yo self.”

2. Today’s Yes, I really Did That, Shit: I watched an entire episode of The Office while waiting for class yesterday on my work computer. FUCK. That was a bad idea. “DID I STUTTER?”