Lucid Waking

The 2006 Review

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really care what happened during the past year, I would like to focus more on the future. While looking back is a good thing to do once in a while to see how much we’ve grown, it’s also a dangerous return to the past where we might get stuck wondering where the time went to do things we were too afraid to do. And quite honestly, wondering where we went wrong to get us here today. The past is depressing because you have in black and white what happened and what didn’t; simply put, cause and effect. The future has so much in store that while more realistically, bad things may happen, we have an equally good chance of good things happening. In the past if bad things happened, bad things happened, so I want to focus on things that might happen that are good.

NASA has been proudly stating all their accomplishments over the past year, including spotting evidence of water flow on Mars and Enceladus (one of Saturn’s moons). This new discovery started scientists bubbling over the possibility that eventually, we would be colonizing Mars. The triviality and status of saying you live on Mars, I believe, would be enough to get people off of Earth and out elsewhere. Eventually (the way I’d like things to go), the human nature sprites who care about our mother, Earth, will stick around and do all that they can with the technology we’ve obtained to help fix it’s problems and make her healthy again.

That’s quite easy to say coming from someone with daily Internet access and excess food on the table. The fact of the matter is that most people on this planet don’t have the option to pay a huge sum of money to go to Mars. People in Africa are living in less than standard conditions in the middle of a desert and drought. Yet, with help from the United States Mercy Corps millions of dollars are spent for food. Children are staying in school because they are getting fed there and people living in small villages are getting the nutrition they haven’t been getting because of drought. These efforts have been helping keep children in school and help rural families with taxes and bills mostly by setting up programs to give out food. If we all help out in whatever ways we can, eventually this problem should cease to exist.

Personally, things have turned up around my life as well. I’ve become a much better writer and will continue to improve as I keep practicing. I’ve kept my promise from last year and have art submissions piling up in Erato for you to enjoy; I’ve also gotten quite good at drawing and painting. I’ve made several new friends who I can relate to and work with. They’re people who love me as much as I love them. My family has remained healthy and I’ve acquired a new fuzzy sister. And while the beginning of the year remains a hazy memory, I’m sure wonderful events have occurred then, also, to keep me thankful for the advances we made and looking forward to 2007.

“Not much between despair and ecstasy”

The 2006 Review