For now, let’s look at the political scene.
It’s crazy, still, but it looks like people are coming to their senses that the orange orangutan is radioactive. Slowly. 2023 will bring more to this ongoing saga. For those of us who are in our later decades, we really are stunned at what has happened.
We also have a shocking situation in Ukraine, with a bully madman having attacked in March, trying to seize what they had no rights to seize. Simple land grabbing via military attacks. They are not winning. The Ukrainians are fighters and clever. It is going to be a long bloody war. Senseless. Devastating. Insane.
Eyes on Europe and the UK, where leadership in different countries shift. France remained stable barely. Italy is now under a government that may turn back pages in history. The UK? What a mess. Since Brexit, there has been nothing but an unfolding debacle with monkeys driving the train off the bridge.
Now, the weather.
We had our second-most severe cold weather outbreak over Christmas, following a summer of hellish heat. We saw a monster hurricane devastate Florida. We’ve seen fires continuing in parts of the US and we watched Europe suffer horrid heat this year. The planet is changing rapidly as scientists predicted it would, and at a faster rate than predicted. This threatens food supplies, health, and welfare of all people everywhere on the planet.
Politicians don’t do the right thing. Climate deniers block funding for solutions designed to shore up infrastructure that has been damaged or that is degrading due to age. Each time there is a cold snap they retort that climate change is not real. There is a personality pattern that has been identified that shows the complexity of what makes these people deniers. The big question is will they ever relent before we totally destroy our home. It’s not looking positive on that note.
Creepy Disease Outbreaks.
We’ve endured nearly three years of coping and mitigating SARS-CO-19 and all its variants. We are “vaxxed to the max” which has helped us avoid hospitalization with this disease. We’ve seen how miserable and scary this disease can be – and how unpredictable. We still are hearing about the unfolding long lasting effects. With every little ailment, we don’t know if it’s a long symptom or injury from the virus or something else unrelated.
And in 2022, we’ve seen the emergence of influenza and now RSV that not only is attacking kids, but adults, too. It worries scientists and world leaders as the response was not stellar and was variable across the world. This does not help get control early before deaths become widespread. China has failed. Some countries have given up. Some have fared better than others. It’s a story that is a cautionary tale.
What’s Positive?
Hope remains. Living one day at a time, hoping for better times and doing what we can to make those happen. What do we look for? Signs of health. Signs of sanity. Signs of happiness. Signs of peaceful coexistence. Are we idealistic? Yes. Someone has to be. But we are also pragmatic. We are going back to drawing and maybe painting, but beginning with drawing, at least. Got some pastels from Santa – a lovely set of Conte’ pastels. Let’s see what happens.
