How is 2010 going for you? So far, I don’t really have any complaints. Everyday I expect to see things to be happy about and it’s very rare that I don’t. I look forward to each New Year because it is an opportunity to spend more time with the people I love, to read more books, watch more movies, listen to more great music, have more moments of pleasure, make new friends, and simply to enjoy life.
At New Year’s I wished “Happy New Year” to the members of an online group to which I belong. One of the members responded that while she wished everyone a Happy New Year as well, she thought 2010 had all of the signs that we were headed into a dark time in human history.
Sounds to me like someone is spending too much time watching the news. I’m not denying there’s a war in Iraq, that recently there was an earthquake in Haiti, or that people are dying of AIDS in Africa, but are things really that dark? I hear people bemoaning all the time that things are worse now than when they were younger. Is that really true?
I admit that I do miss the twentieth century. Life was slower, but maybe also a bit duller. Still, I’m not sure all advancements are for the better. Perhaps before technology spread so rapidly, we appreciated things more. One of my friends was recalling the other day how it used to feel like a big event when “The Wizard of Oz” came on TV once a year. Children would wait all year for that night, and they would be glued to the television through that program. Then came the VCR and now we can all watch “The Wizard of Oz” six times a day everyday if we really want. We have less excitement perhaps because we have less delayed-gratification, and I do think we’ve become more impatient as a result. But overall, is that really worse when we can enjoy any movie we want at any time?
What about bigger issues? Yes, there is a war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s terrible, but is it comparable to the horrors of World War II? The earthquake in Haiti is horrible, but so was the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Do we think our politicians are corrupt? I guess we’ve forgotten the graft and corruption and “boss” control of city politics that marked the early twentieth century.
I don’t think things are worse. In fact, in many ways they are better. Our processed food may not be as wholesome, but yet we are still living longer. In the old days, if a loved one went down the Oregon Trail, you’d likely never see him again. Now you can hop on a plane and be in Oregon in a few hours. Remember when we had to write a letter, mail it, and then wait at least a week for a response? Now email gives us communication with anyone in the world in just a few minutes. And how anyone composed a novel on a typewriter—all the frustration of correcting typos—what a nightmare to think of compared to our wonderful laptops today. How about how people used to have to move away to find a job—today more and more people work from home. You can send an email from the Himalayas, or have a business call on a boat in Hawaii. If you’re an author you know publishing and promoting your book is ten times easier due to new technology and the Internet. My company, Reader Views, never could have existed twenty years ago—technology made it happen. So are things really worse?
If anything, things are about even, but I sincerely think the world is better than it was. We will always have naysayers. Rather than listen to them, turn the channel. We have something like 400 cable channels to watch. We don’t need to hold onto doom and gloom. How many times have we heard the sky is falling, and how many times has it really fallen?
“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” — Mark Twain
Irene
Watson, MA, is author of The Sitting Swing: Finding
Wisdom to Know the Difference, and co-editor
of The Story that Must Be
Told: True Tales of Transformation,
and Authors Access: 30 Success
Secrets for Authors and Publishers.
She is a workshop leader,
managing editor of Reader Views,
and president of a non-profit Higher Power Foundation.
Irene lives next to Barton Creek in Austin, TX, with her husband Robert.
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