Predictions for 2009

Everyone is all about cheap chic, even those of us rare few who still go to an office 50 hours a week. We are becoming more conscious as a society about our consumption. We're trying to get by on less, we are trying to make simple lives, we are trying to retreat from the shrine of shopping malls. With this in mind, here are my predictions for 2009:

1. More people will learn to sew, knit and generally embrace the domestic arts. It's not about "buying a new one" any more, it will be more about fixing the old one, or making it new and cool with a few stitches here and there. Dudes, too.
2. People will see the insides of each others' homes. I've never been a big one for group dinners at restaurants -- there is, invariably, someone who feels cheated when it's time to pay the bill, and the wine markup is so inexcusable that I can't help but do the math in my head ("This sip will cost me $2.87"). The economic downturn won't keep people apart from each other, but parties will move from restaurants to potlucks and dinners at home. Which are more fun, plus, you can break out the astrology books and the Tarot cards at the end.
3. The stock market will have a healthy bounce by June, beyond all reason except that most people will stop being afraid and start bargain hunting, as they are in the rest of their lives.
4. Libraries will bustle; Nancy Pearl will eclipse Brittany Spears as national pop icon.
5. Scientists will make a definitive link between our environment and why so many women in their late 30s-early 40s are miscarrying.
6. People will pooh-pooh bottled water and riot in the streets when they learn that their tap water isn't up to decent standards.
7. Christmas will become more about soul-stuffing than stocking-stuffing, and stuff in general.
8. Companies that rip off consumers with exorbitant prices for cosmetics, cereal, milk, gas, etc will be exposed. Consumers will revolt with a vengeance as they realize they've been exploited, and they can do with a lot less than they'd originally thought.

I'm very excited about 2009 so far. I am oddly, madly, crazy in love with the world and America, despite our crass materialism, our fall from compassion and grace, our bleak outlook.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.
-- Leonard Cohen