Keeping watch for 2009

Why is it that rather than look ahead in anticipation, I peek warily into the coming year, that I feel more a sense of dread than optimism?

There's the inauguration of a new president to celebrate and undoubtedly there will be other times to hold close.

But there are also things that go bump in the night and other shoes to drop.

And, c'mon, it's not like a new year is a new beginning. We still take ourselves with us wherever we go. We don't suddenly have a "fresh start," whatever that means. Our histories, our pasts are still the balls and chains we carry with us. Thank God we don't lose our friends, our families and have to start over every year. But tomorrow will simply be a continuation of today and yesterday, so there's no reinventing yourself just because a new calendar gets hung on the wall.

But maybe that's what underlies the hoopla and partying on New Year's Eve: the notion that we can change into something better. That we will emerge from our cocoons as butterflies.

Whatever. Me, I'm just watching warily as the future unfolds.

Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, London

Now there's a man on his soapbox. The real thing. Since the late 1800s, the right to free speech has been exercised by countless people who have mounted the soapbox in Hyde Park to speak their minds. Even if they are out of their minds.

What a tradition. Had I known about it in 1995 when I was in London, maybe I would have made my debut then. Now I have to settle for a virtual soapbox.

And considering the proliferation of blogs, I'm guessing that an awful lot of us feel an urgent need to speak our minds. Maybe it's because the world is too noisy and has too many pundits, so-called celebrities, politicians and talking heads trying to tell us what to think. And we know damn well what we think. We just want the platform for our own ideas rather than to be a sponge for the thoughts and ruminations of others.

And, besides, most people are just stupid. Or ignorant. Or both. That's why I think that everyone is entitled to my opinion.

Stay tuned.