What the future holds remains unknowable until it arrives – which is why we greet 2010 with both anticipation and optimism. Our aspirations center on a year marked by good health and economic well-being. We look forward to personal achievement, business success, and spiritual growth in the months ahead. The year we are leaving behind tested us severely, marked by economic turmoil. Few could have predicted the collapse of the United States automobile industry in 2009. Major Wall Street institutions either vanished or required government intervention to survive. While a handful of economists saw this coming, most did not. Should we not have recognized that the American banking system faced upheaval? The stock market and retirement savings accounts tell a similar story – trillions in value evaporated between 2008 and 2009 with little warning. Throughout 2009, hope and despair existed side by side. Reality clashed with illusion, and there were moments when the American economy seemed poised for catastrophic failure. Yet the foundation held. The worst appears behind us now. We stand ready to welcome 2010, the final year of a decade that has rushed past with remarkable speed. The nation has moved from George Bush to Barack Obama, from “yes we can” to questioning whether we can. Health care reform and the expansion of insurance coverage to all Americans will define 2010. Restoring faith in our economy and ourselves becomes essential work. Job creation must follow, or economic recovery will prove impossible. Years arrive and depart. 2009 slipped away in an instant – there and gone. As we cross into 2010, let us commit to making each day matter and to transforming each moment into something meaningful within the narrative of our existence. Happy New Year.
Happy New Year
