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Xmas Eve Stream of Consciousness

Weary, baggy eyed airport travelers are stranded for the second day in a row as winter storms shut down planes and ice runways. Retailers keep their fingers crossed praying that second black Friday will reap extra change. Gas prices are down by 60% but people are still watching their mileage as with any other expenditures. Families are tightening and streamlining their belts. Xmas wish lists are pared down or done without.

In the Xmas 24 hour marathon television favorite, A Xmas Story, the mother of the main character, Ralph, asks him what he wants on his Xmas wish list. Initially, she denies him his Red Ryder BB gun because it's dangerous. In the end, Ralph and his brother get everything they wanted. Even though it's a fictional and all time movie classic favorite, I'm sure financially strapped families now watch these idyllic scenes with a sobering perspective.

People are coping and learning, most for the first time, how to really save and buy what's necessary. Can't afford to keep up with the Jones' because they had to move out of their ARM home to live in a rental or live with relatives as their house succumbed to foreclosure. Less is more. Learning to live with less is a humbling and an overdue wake up call for a country dependent on credit.

The first decade of the 21st century is nearing the finishing line. Hopefully consumer fears will be uplifted under Barack Obama's administration because it is fear that is crippling the country: fear of spending, borrowing/lending money, fear of losing jobs, fear of paying bills, and so on. He appears to be the only guiding light who can fix this unfinished country and bring it back to shape. So far so good say 82% of Americans who approve of his presidential transition, according to CNNPolitics.com. That's higher than Bush, Clinton and even Reagan during their transition period.

Many approached Y2k with excitement and fear; fear of the computerized world clocks throwing off almost anything techi generated from airlines/traffic control schedules to mega computer database glitches. The new fear is fear of losing and loaning money. But maybe we deserved this wake up call to get our shit together from the corporate money hungry Goliaths to the junior high kids who expect to get the latest and coolest cell phone every 6 months. Entitlement is not as easy a free pass any longer. As a result, 2009 will be the year of humility, depression pains, soul searching, belt tightening, brain powered innovation, and eventually rebirth.
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