A year in hope

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

By Ben Cannon

What could I possibly say about 2007 that you, thorough and highly perceptive Planet reader, didn’t already observe with your own eyes and ears?

Rather than recapping the year in events as this issue, in part, aims to do, why don’t we (“we” together, in earnest; not the royal kind) instead look ahead to what we might expect for 2008? The future, after all, is where our hopes and dreams lay. Meanwhile any disappointments and frustrations and failures of the past can be set aside for the passing of time to repaint in the rosy hues of nostalgia, the sepia tones of remembrance. Or, as North Koreans say, less sentimentally: “Always forward, never back!”

Yes, 2008, me thinks, will bring good tidings to Jackson Hole and, hopefully, to this great nation, a country that is well due for some change. Firstly, because the holidays are oh so white and a good many Jackson Hole residents remain in jubilant tizzy thanks to primo December ski conditions – and also maybe to avoid any jinxing us by saying it outright –perhaps the first quarter of ’08 is poised to bring high returns to those who invested their prayers in Ullr, that finicky Norse god of snow.

Moving on, in a little more socially substantive tone, with the Comprehensive Plan update underway, here’s hoping the sundry persons and interests of this valley – the activists, the builders, the families, the planners, the hopeful who want to stake a life in a Jackson Hole now out of reach for them – will enjoy good progress in reshaping the doctrine that will guide this place for the next generation and beyond.

For our nation facing a presidential and congressional elections in ’08, here’s to a country that can resolve some of the partisanship driving a wedge between the left and the right, putting a halt to good, real progress. Here’s to hoping for the emergence of a solid presidential candidate; one who at least a sound majority of the American people can get behind.  This is important in an increasingly complicated and pluralistic world where ignoble regimes continue to suppress people. Let’s hope new leadership can lead  to a peaceful change in this world, where the global dependence on oil threatens – in the very worst light of highly possible scenarios – to tear apart civilization through both the brutal measures of self-nationalistic preservation and in the fallout of impending climactic change.

But, while hope can be the whim of the dreamers, the refuge of the sick, for us it is still the fuel of dreams and the light of Providence. Happy New Year (and shred the pow).

PERMALINK:
A year in hope | Planet JH News Article: Editorial

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