Remembering What We Hoped for in 2010

A year ago, David Loftus and Ryan John shared with us their hope for what 2010 would bring.  I think it's fitting to look back on what they wrote then, knowing now how the year played out.




Ryan John:

What is my hope for 2010?  Wow, I have a lot of hopes for next year and most of them I don’t even know exist yet. I mean all my life I’ve always have the same big picture, life hopes I dream one day will work out.  But the small hopes change too rapidly and spontaneously for me to even think about. The small ones hit me first thing in the morning as soon as I wake up.  These are the routine things I’ll always hope for that either stems from my mood that minute or my immediate agenda, like getting out of bed on time to making it into work when I’m supposed to. 

Than, throughout the normal course of the day, as usual, I’ll put some sort of effort into hoping things go the way I want at that point in time.  Some days in 2010, my small hope will be to surf the net, daydream about whatever pops in my brain and not really be held accountable for and real, substantial productivity.  These are the days in 2010 when I need my big, life hopes to come in and override those little variable, sometimes detrimental hopes. 

My personal hope for 2010 is to spend less time hoping and more time resolving.  Starting to resolve those burning things inside of me I know I’m capable of.   Small steps towards that direction can take me down the road I know I want to be on.  I need those big hopes in my life to become more of a reality and less of a daydream.  Hope is given me too much of a safety net I guess.  I’m not getting any younger.  My hope for 2010 is more resolve.

David Loftus:

I suppose I could hope for something really wonderful and earth-shaking (in human terms, anyway) like an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a world treaty to stop the production of greenhouse gases, or a dependable alternative energy source that replaces petroleum, but none of those seems to be within the realm of possibility within the next year. There are also things I wish to achieve personally in 2010, but those are mostly in my hands; I regard them as closer to plans than hopes.

So my hope is that most Americans will clear up their consumer debt and stop buying things they don’t really need, especially on credit. In the past, about 70 percent of the Gross Domestic Product has depended on consumer spending, but we have to stop measuring economic health this way. It’s become a big, unending, breakneck cycle of production and consumption, mostly for their own sake. One of the great ironies of the past half-century is that corporate America has managed to sell the notion that spending money is an expression of freedom . . . so that citizens overspend on credit, and succeed in losing their freedom to banks, lending companies, and sometimes even the sheriff.

If Americans were to break out of that rut, they would discover subtle but deep psychological and spiritual rewards. Once free of the accumulation-of-debt-in-order-to-keep-consuming cycle, fewer folks would feel tied down to their particular jobs. They’d be more likely to devote their energies to activities -- even work -- that they love, less likely to cling to neglectful and abusive partners, more likely to spend time with their children, and less likely to turn to drugs (from aspirin and shopping and television to alcohol and heroin) in order to get by. And little by little, the world will become a better, happier place. That’s my hope, anyway.

 On behalf of everyone at AMERICAN CURRENTS, have a happy and healthy New Year!