Hopin' for Brighter Days Ahead

Consciousness sucks. Anyone who's ever experienced it during a downturn knows that. Now that I am poised to lose up to half my earned income before taxes, consciousness means choosing. I can choose to take a chance on the same horse, or I can change horses, or enter an entirely different race altogether.

I'm really at a crossroads. Yogi Berra said that when you come to a fork in the road, take it. I've just learned that's not as easy, or as funny, as it sounds.

I took some new uncharacteristically holiday-ish tunes with me tonight to work out. Yo-Yo Ma's recent Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace called to me a while ago, at a time when maybe I thought there might be writing on the wall but I couldn't see it clearly. I'm glad I caved in and ordered it because it is an absolute delight. It's really sort of a winter album draped around recurring versions of the "Dona Nobis Pacem" hymn tune. There are a couple of notable exceptions such as the Ma and James Taylor rendition of the classic "Here Comes the Sun".

I hope it will lift your spirits as it did mine. It is going to be a long, hard, cold winter, but spring always comes, and with it hope and renewal. And in between we have things to celebrate, like our freedom, and love, and dignity, and our creative spirit, and the magic of watching all kinds of things unfolding -- kids growing up, our own ripening in mid age, little kids in the White House again, the Ford CEO getting paid a dollar, people finding jobs again, bread and milk at reasonable prices. Today I passed my usual gas station and the price of regular unleaded was $1.63! That's both good and bad news -- we live in an age of paradox. But no doubt through it all the sun will continue to rise and set in a dance with the moon. Enjoy this dance between two American treasures, Ma and Taylor, to warm you from the inside out with visions of joy and peace. (Note: especially therapeutic when combined with a purring cat on lap.)

Here Comes The Sun