Story of the week: 2008 Ends, 2009 Begins

2008 was a year of misery. Extreme weather, devastating economic policies with their chickens roosting comfortably, ugly politics, scandals in sports, who knew there were so many greedy people masquerading as Masters of the Universe aka Financial Wizards and national leaders(we found out didn’t we), the last year of an abysmally inept White House administration, Israel and Hamas are at it with civilians in the middle and a new collection of destructive toys to use on each other compliments of their best friends (arms/weapons dealers in Russia, China, US...) whispering “use them...”, Afghanistan worsens, India and Pakistan have the same friends and hear their same whispers.

Our infrastructure's crumbling, our economy's stumbling, our corporate giants embarass us when they're not inflicting pain on us, and we struggle to maintain our lead as the world's leader in innovation (we forfeited that title in manufacturing decades ago).

And out of that misery though comes:

Change, hope and a renewed sense of community. No, this isn’t an Obama spot. But we saw a grassroots political campaign that swept by the entrenched, vested interests in Washington and Wall Street.  There’s a renewed sense of community in our country now, that we’re all in this together rich and poor, haves and havenots. There’s a heated debate to find solutions for our healthcare system.Heated debate means others, consumers, have joined the discussion now. There’s a clear change in the direction of our White House AND Congress. It’s but a first step and frankly given how long the journey looks I’m a bit impatient. But, it’s a first step.

There's a renewed commitment to innovation and the education needed to sustain it. Finally, someone discusses infrastructure...now that no one comes to the marketplace any more. But hey, it's a start. 

Social media has given voice to the wisdom of the crowd, That’s our voices, as citizens and as consumers. Collectively, we have a pretty high batting average. And collectively, we stay centered, neither right nor left, and can correct any extremes without stifling the wisdom of their champions.

2008 was a year of transformation and change for me and my wife, personally and professionally. Some painful. Most of that from the process of clearing out old attitudes, relationships built around those attitudes, and learning to embrace initially with fear but with growing confidence, what and how and with whom I want to spend my day.

Maybe, that’s why the morning of 2009 I felt a new day had arrived. For no particular reason I felt hopeful and positive, even mildly euphoric. So many folks on twitter were sharing the same experience the morning of January 1.

I was happy all day. For a morning after, that’s a good thing.

But the sense was that a whole range of opportunities and challenges await me, us. And they’ll arrive quickly (not quick enough from this spot, but ultimately I sense their timing will be near-perfect.) in 2009 because now I’m ready for them.

2008  Ends. 2009 Begins. Let the good times roll.