'So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night'

Photo by: ammon!

Au revoir, 2008! Goodbye, and as the local Toronto Sun tabloid says in its headline: Good riddance!

No love lost here for a year that was just plain bad on most fronts.

I can count my blessings -- for my year was not personally bad or tragic -- but, I also know when it's best to cut loose and start anew.

Thank God for new years.

Work has evened out -- and I still have a job -- after a roller coaster year that never really let up until the last few weeks of the year. Work is a far cry from the dream job I enjoyed last year. Signs of settlement are appearing, though that may be optimistic thinking at this point. Among those who quit this year -- the sports editor, the entertainment editor and night production manager (the latter two being management.) Among those let go weeks before Christmas -- the publisher and managing editor of the Ottawa paper.

On the edges of my family's lives, two people lost their lives quickly and violently -- a long-time family friend in a freak highway accident, and a young soldier on his second tour in Afghanistan.

On a personal level, I have spent much of the past year trying to feel at home here in Toronto -- and for the most part, failing. I have found places and things to hang on too, and have a much better sense of what I need.

Family -- my brothers and their families, my stepmother -- is crucial.

In spite of, or because of, all the craziness in the past year, I am feeling stronger and have a clearer vision of what I want my future to be like. This idea of emigrating to Wales gets stronger and more defined. It was a tremendous boost to find that our departing entertainment editor is moving to Ireland to start afresh. An amazing boost. She should be on her way there now.

We were able to meet up for coffee before she left work and she told me interesting and useful information regarding passports and employment. 2009 will be a year of preparation for me. Depending on what God has in store for me, I may very well be on my way to Wales in early 2010.

I plan on spending two weeks' vacation there in September and will scout employment possibilities and Cardiff in general. Wales BBC is in Cardiff. Perhaps I can get in there -- they do exceptional work. I have seen some of it here on the CBC. It would be nice to work in research on documentaries. They also have unpaid job internships from a few days to months, so perhaps I can do something for a few days while on vacation.

There will be much to do.

And my niece, Kate, is getting married in August!

I looked upon 2008 as a year of promise, and it stumbled and fell out of the gates. The economists all predict things will get worse before they get better -- and I believe, indeed, we are a long, long way from seeing things work properly again. I'm not an economist -- but things seem very broken, and like Humpty Dumpty, the king's men don't know how to put it together again.

On a high note, Barack Obama is president-elect of the United States. He's got his work cut out for him, but the full impact of his election has not hit me yet. I wanted to savour his victory. Its sweetness was palpable to minorities everywhere, and the globe, I think, gave a collective sigh of gratitude. I pray he may be able to live and work out his time in office.

Strange times. Are we entering a new time of revolution, like the '60's? We may be -- but on a global scale (though change was global in the '60's, too.) The power of the West is diminishing, the power of China is rising, the power of S. America may be rising. Financial structures have almost collapsed. The climate is said to be on the point of collapse. We seem to be at a tipping point. Unfortunately, we humans often take the easiest, short-term solution rather than the more difficult long-term course of action.

So, as you can see, it is time for a fresh start. We need it, safe to say.

God bless us all, in 2009!