I don’t write about my political views anymore. It’s like a bad dinner table subject, along with sex, religion or money; best avoided for fear of upsetting others’ sensitivities in company. In this day and age, I’d offend at least 50% of our readers and that’s far from being my job – rather an observer than a commentator. Many of my inclinations have changed over the years anyway so I try to maintain an open-mindedness to accommodate the feelings of others.

The world continues to spin, maybe not out of control but the axis seems to be decidedly wobbly sometimes. Sitting in reasonably retired comfort in a quiet neck of the woods of the ‘Coastal Empire’, the fickle fingers of current affairs can still quietly tap you on the shoulder or grab you by the throat with both hands. An earthquake tremor off the coast of Maine; interesting but not earth-shattering (sorry about the pun) as no one suffered dire consequences – so a mere nod to the news and life continues at its gentle Southern pace.

The weather, on the other hand, has got everyone’s attention whichever coast you look at. The unthinkable devastation of the California fires has touched hearts and minds of the nation and has proven that economic circumstances are of no consequence to Mother Nature’s wrath. Towns full of multimillion-dollar mansions being as fragile as a farmer’s barn.

Water and its management were found seriously wanting there, whereas the mountains of East Tennessee and North Carolina couldn’t handle the rain run-off of a thousand-year tempest with equally devastating results. Lives and possessions are still unaccounted for after six long months.

Five inches of ice and snow; no problem in Buffalo, brought our neck of the woods to a standstill for days. The last 3” snowfall was in 1971!! People who moan about a heavy frost didn’t know what to do except raid the grocery stores of eggs, milk and bread. Why those particular products? No idea but it seems to be standard operating procedure in the South.

It’s far too easy to complain of a shortage here and there until you realize the rigors of reaching the meagerest supplies for families in parts of the world at war. We still have it fairly easy by almost any measure yet we complain when toilet rolls are hard to get. Heaven forbid we should resort to the use of a Sears Roebuck catalogue!

 As we peel back the onion skins of coming economic policies, bearing in mind that economics is a lot like physics; every action has an equal and opposite reaction, I believe we may see the frailty of some of the standards we’ve accepted in the past. Some have been slipping for a while now. Civility seems to be as rare as hens’ teeth. Some of us may remember the reaction of our society in the days following the bombings of The World Trade Center on 9/11. People were excruciatingly nice to one another at the same time as Middle Eastern civil society was unravelling, fueled by warmongering politicians of the time.

I’ve said before that history repeats itself because we don’t learn from it and early indications seem to point to continued global turmoil. Let’s hope for new beginnings in this new year.