Still Snowing - The End of the World - Something of Beauty

It's beginning to get bloody tedious this failure of spring to appear. I'm still getting days where it snows all day. The snow is light and does not stick but still I'd sure like spring to show up. The extended forecast is for more of the same. Good gollie miss Molly, this is the longest winter yet.

A reader wrote me to say that the collapse of the middle class in America isn't going to happen because "IF we minions decide to invent and bring to market something that people want and/or need....think of paper clips, or BIll Gates. Steve Jobs, or Martha Stewart, Fred Astaire, audrey Hepburn, or anyone else who didn't start out with much money, but ended up with LOTS because of their talent...The minions can be come masters if they only think they can. These folks created LOTS of jobs for other people!" I'd argue Martha, Steve and Bill created more jobs overseas than in the US. The inclusion of actors as innovators completely escapes me. The only thing I can think of is movies let people live in a fantasy world. I think this person's view represents the majority, middle class view and is precisely why the collapse is already happening but going largely unnoticed.

I came across this article which shows me how the US stacks up on science and innovation.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12885271.

As a photographer, I naturally believe a picture is worth a thousand words and this image tells me all I need to know about the future of the dollar.

I recently read and article, I don't have the link, where a person posits the reason for the market to be rising in the face of a sluggish economy. The market rising in a poor economy seems, at face value, to be counter intuitive. It seemed such to me. But, the author points out that several large economies such as India and China are moving right along and many US companies have simply left the US to produce goods an services for those economies. This abandonment of the US will help their bottom line and make shareholders happy but they won't create much in the way of jobs in the US.

Lately, I've been pondering TEOTWAWKI (The end of the world as we know it). Heaven only knows recent events have been conducive to such dark notions. Much has been written and documentaries made heralding the end of times at 12/21/2012. They say the Mayans, Nostradamus and others have prophesied that date as the end. One would have to be living in a cave not to notice the harbingers that are all around us, earthquakes, tsunamis, freak storms, solar activity, planetary alignments and on and on. Depending on how you look at it, it could be very depressing.

Obviously, I don't "know" what the future holds. I do feel something is going to happen that is going to alter life as we know it. I use the term we in the global sense. But, rather than see the event as the end I choose to see it as some kind of new beginning. I don't see the extinction of mankind but I do see the survivors as those who have prepared themselves mentally, physically and spiritually. Change is always tough and if I'm right this event will be extremely challenging. But, the good news for me is that it will be an ending that leads to a more positive beginning so I choose to embrace it!

Well, that was heavy thinking. Fortunately, a friend posted a perfectly delightful video which I am going to enjoy watching numerous times. I first saw the Budweiser Clydesdales when I was about five years old, that would be 57 years ago. They always came to be in the parade during the county fair. For 57 years they have brought tears to my eyes just to see their magnificence, the power and grace of them. Gads, I am a wuss!