Thanks for your well wishes, and thanks for thinking me worthy of good things, but please.... let's be real. Good things might happen in 2012, but so will a whole boat load of bad things. Want to know why? Because that's just life. That's just the way the stupid proverbial cookie crumbles.
And when 2012 hits we'll still be watching all of the ridiculous politicians tell us things they think we want to hear and then turn around and do whatever makes them happy. And we'll be watching all of those same yin yangs debate and vie for position in the coming election and I'll still be vomiting every time they open their mouth because they're all full of it. And the news media will continue on in their ridiculous puppet show, both right and left, and stir the overly dramatic political pot because true journalism died decades ago and all they care about these days is ratings and which political yin yang they can get to stroke their ego. And there will always be another war to replace the one that the stupid politician promised would come to an end. And there will always be people pointing fingers and placing blame on this Capitalist pig and that Capitalist pig, and there will always be people pointing fingers at the finger pointers crying Communism is just around the corner and it's because of you idiots. And the government will do what the government will do because the people are so caught up in the stupid puppet show they aren't actually thinking for themselves and doing what needs to be done to truly bring a positive change. And the rest of us will sit here and watch the puppet show from a distance and shake our head and go to work and pay our bills and say to ourselves, "I just need to take care of my own, because the rest of this is outside of my control," and things will change, for better or worse, it's all relative at some point.
And really, I have no idea what 2012 has in store for me or for you. I do believe good things will come my way, as they will come your way too, but the question is whether any of us will have a clear enough head to recognize them when they do. And I do believe bad things will come our way, because for some of us, they already started. There are people who received the happy Christmas news that their partner wants a divorce and I'm pretty sure they're not looking at 2012 with hope. And there are people who lost loved ones this past week and they're starting 2012 with grief at their side. And there are parents with children just starting their fight against cancer and for them, 2012 is starting with a great struggle to find healing. And there is a world full of unemployed struggling people right now and January 1, 2012 isn't going to magically change any of this for them, and they may not even be in a space to celebrate the turning of time. For all of these people, I pray that they have the strength to endure the bad things that have already fallen on their plate because, whether we can see it at the time or not, everything does have a way of working out, sooner or later (it's just waiting for the "later" that seems endless and unbearable).
I guess if there's one thing we can look forward to is that 2012 already has some hilarious and ridiculous "bad juju" looming over it: the Mayans and their mysterious calendar that just stops may prove to make this one of the most entertaining years since Y2K. If nothing else, maybe we can all get together once a month and have a good laugh at all the nut jobs on Earth desperately searching for the 13th Crystal Skull (which is a story I will have to tell soon because I have something to say about that one) and place it at the right vortex point on Earth so they can save the world Indiana Jones style. And we can all have a good laugh at the less informed nut jobs that know nothing about the saving grace of the Crystal Skulls and start packing up their things to head for the hills (because we all know caves help one successfully survive any apocalypse).
So tonight, as I sit in a room full of happily married friends and families and try to swallow my own jaded bitterness as midnight rolls around and I have no one to hug and kiss and say something like, "I love you and I am so happy to spend this coming year with you," I will give a kiss to my own glass of wine and say something to myself like, "Bring it on, 2012, because my name is Pandora and if I've learned anything thus far it's that I can take any solid punch you throw at me and I can bob and weave with the best of them, even if my limbs are broken and my eyes are blackened like a Cajun salmon." And I will wish something similar for all of you.
