It seems to me just about everyone is sick of 2010 and cannot wait to welcome 2011. Maybe there is good reason for that. This year has not lived up to our expectations, hopes, or promises. It pretty much started out on a catastrophically bad note which foreshadowed the rest of the year’s lousy legacy.
My memory isn’t that great, but I’ll try to review the highlights of 2010 and let’s see what we are saying good-bye to.
The year started off with the 7.0 earthquake in Haiti on January 12th. If that’s not a bad omen for the world, I don’t know what is. I looked it up to refresh my memory and there were 52 after shocks 4.5 or higher, 230,000 dead, one million homeless. The devastation is really too overwhelming to comprehend.
Before we know it, there is another devastating 8.8 earthquake in Chile on February 27th with over 500 deaths. This earthquake generated a tsunami which could have affected 53 countries, including ours. I distinctly remember watching the news all day because they were expecting it to hit Hawaii. It really felt like we were doomed and the end of the world, as we knew it, was around the corner.
What else could happen in 2010? Aren’t two devastating earthquakes enough for one year? Well apparently not, because on April 27th we experienced the largest oil disaster in history when the BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. I never knew why they called it an “oil spill.” Was that to minimize the extent of the environmental damages? The “leak” was supposedly capped on September 19th, 2010. The gushing of oil ranged from 53,000 to 62,000 barrels per day for 5 months, if you believe what they say. Personally, I don’t believe anything anyone tells us. The clean-up will take till the end of time, maybe longer.
If you haven’t already seen pictures of the Guatemala sinkhole of 2010, you really should take a look. A huge hole, 66 feet wide and 100 feet deep, just popped up in the middle of one of their cities. I've posted a link at the end of the blog for you to see.
On August 5th we had the Chilean mining accident where 33 miners were buried, 2,300 feet below ground, for 69 days when the mine collapsed. All were miraculously rescued on October 13th.
We’ve lost many celebrities we grew up watching: Art Linkletter, Barbara Billingsley, Dennis Hopper, Dixie Carter, Eddie Fisher, George Steinbrenner, Jean Simmons (Gone With The Wind), Jill Clayburgh, John Forsythe, Lena Horne, Kathryn Grayson, Lynn Redgrave, Merlin Olsen, Mitch Miller, Patricia Neal, Peter Graves, Robert Culp, Rue McClanahan, Tom Bosley, Tony Curtis, Teddy Pendergrass and many more.
We’ve all had our own personal problems with 2010 too. Maybe it was a failed relationship, health issues, unemployment, or other crisis. Then general feeling I am getting is that no one was very happy with 2010 and is looking forward to 2011.
Let’s hope that this New Year is better than the last. Let’s pray we are able to enjoy good healthy and prosperity. Let’s set goals we can work at and attain. Let’s support and encourage each other to get through hard days. Let’s challenge each other and make each other smile.
The important things in life are the people we love and value and we should be at the top of our own list. Let’s take care of ourselves and each other and the rest will fall into place.
Have a Happy, Healthy New Year and may 2011 be good to all of you!
P.S. For anyone who is interested, I will be starting my 17 Day Diet on Monday, January 3rd, and will add postscripts to my regular daily blog commenting on it's effectiveness, complaints (I'm sure there will be many) and what prgress I am making (if any).
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100601-sinkhole-in-guatemala-2010-world-science/
No comments:
Post a Comment