2010: Something wonderful?

Life is Sweet II (detail)

I finally finished Life is Sweet II, my second Day of the Dead beaded candy box. This was some task given the holidays, commotion, and shock of another new year’s arrival.

The new year always surprises me. I think I’m reminded of my childhood excitement when 1965 turned to 1966. A double 6, how exciting! That had never happened before that I could remember (in 1955, I was only 2 yrs old), so 1966 was quite exciting. So was 1969, since that very number had acquired such a reputation during my high school years (blush). It was a hefty year that left many of us “Dazed and Confused” and fighting over whether or not “Tommy” was mere bubble gum when compared to Led Zep.

1984 is the next year I remember having had significance for me. Having read 1984 when it still seemed far enough away, I was relieved when his predictions didn’t pan out:

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself–anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face…; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime…”

– George Orwell, 1984

Though what crime you could be guilty of is less defined now (or of a wider scope), that ominous statement is more true in 2010 than I would ever have imagined. Just think of airline security check-ins. The town where I live is planning to put an “eye in the sky”, to protect and serve the public by flying over our yards and streets so that in case something happens, they might have recorded it! An Orwellian nightmare, for sure.

And 2010, more than 2001 — which seemed anti-climactic after Y2k — feels like a larger leap from 2009 than it really is. Maybe Stanley Kubrick had something to do with that… 2010: The Year We Make Contact.

HAL: “What is going to happen?” -Dave: “Something wonderful.”

I do hope that this year will be a pivotal one for me. Life seems to come in fits and starts, and I could use something wonderful right about now.