Predictions for 2010

It's New Year's Eve, and all over the Internet, I see people making lists. Lists not only of the Top 10, 20, 100, whatever for the year, but also for the decade--2010 marks the beginning of a new decade--sort of. I think we technically have to get through 2010 to get to the next decade. But people said that about the year 2000 as well, and it's still regarded as the beginning of the millennium, so--whatever works. I am not going to produce another list.

New Year's as such is an arbitrary choice of day in our measuring of time. We've passed 12 or 13 moons (13 this time, I think) since the last time we did this, and that time, I was in London with the flu. This year will be much quieter. I'm not for partying on New Year's Eve--every time I have, it's somehow managed to be a huge letdown. Never mind that the roads are crawling with cops, looking for anyone on the road who may have been drinking at all. Given that drinking on New Year's Eve is almost a given, having to drive home afterward is just asking for trouble. And anyone who heads into Manhattan for New Year's has to be insane. I'm all for a good party, but standing in Times Square with wall-to-wall drunks in the freezing cold just doesn't strike me as a good time.

One of the things I do like to do for fun is make my predictions for the next year. This may surprise you, as that sounds very much like the realm of activities for psychics. I don't profess to be a psychic, but I do have strong intuition, and I'm always watching patterns in our culture. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I do function a lot on "illogical" judgments that are purely intuitive. 2009 has also been an interesting year as I have had more dreams and waking visions of people and encounters before they've happened. This could be because I've been heavier into meditation practices, and meditation can quiet things down enough for you to see and hear outside of your own ego and identity. I certainly don't think there's anything "supernatural" about it. The collective psyche, and individual psyches, are vast territory, largely unknown. So, nothing surprises me.

Okay, enough of that. I usually make predictions for myself, but this time I'm making a few about life in these United States in general.

The Economy--no miraculous recoveries this year, though I do think things will improve financially for the nation as a whole. I do think that the business of bailing out industries and other failing ventures is going to stop--it's going to take more traditional cost-cutting measures and more conservative approaches to economics to straighten out this mess. I do think that such a change is forthcoming.

The President--Barack Obama has had an ambitious agenda for his first year in office--he's had some wins, and some failures--and some apparent victories, like health care, on which the jury is still out. I think he's going to be a lot less ambitious in 2010--not that he's going to do nothing, but he may be a lot more cautious this year in his decision-making. I'm seeing this as a year of re-evaluation for him, and he may take some time out for that. His relationship with the Public at large will still continue to be a roller coaster.

The War in Afghanistan and Elsewhere--I'm also seeing a more passive role here. We've been sending more troops and bolstering our involvement, but that will wind down in 2010. I don't know that it will end, but we will begin to limit our involvement.

The Job Market/Unemployment Rate--this is interesting, because I still see a lot of grief, but things may not be as bad as they look. There is still a lot of fear and uncertainty ahead--and still fallout from the results of people being unemployed--but things may be better by the end of next year than they look at first glance.

The Real Estate Crisis--I see definite change here, in fact, I hear the phrase, "getting unstuck", which suggests that we may start to rebound from the downward spiral we've been in with home values and foreclosures. I don't want to suggest any miracles here, but it does seem like there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Corporations and Business--I'm seeing some unexpected changes here, and changes for the better. Whether this means finding newer, less greedy ways of doing business, or if it just means that failing businesses will start to rebound and flourish, I'm not sure.

Health Care--surprisingly or not, I don't see a lot of changes this year, even with the promises of Obama's health care bill. On the other hand, I don't see anything descending into chaos, so that's a good sign. I get the sense that current changes, while they won't fix many things, will turn out to be a reasonably good start.

Overall, I see us moving away from the anxiety of this past year, towards more stable ground. I don't think everything will be solved this year, and there will still be losses, but 2010 should end on a much better note in these areas than 2009. And frankly, a step in the right direction is better than no progress, or more backsliding.


So, those are my predictions. We'll have to take a second look in about a year to see if I was anywhere close to being on the mark, or just full of shit. Usually after I make my predictions, I forget about them. After all--the only time that really counts is the present, and there's no sense in focusing on outcomes. In the meantime--be safe, and have a happy new year!