Saturday, January 9, 2010

New Year Hopes, Goals, Dreams, and Worries

It recently occured to me that the has been much speculation in our modern culture on the year 2010. With the economic depression looking slightly better, many people have made tentative, hopeful guesses as to the extent of the restoration of our previous American way of life. It is clear from the news that the carefree, wasteful days of the 1990's will not return. With the imminent threat of global warming hanging over our heads, an extremely worrying question arrises. Are we really too late? Has our extravagant way of life completely sealed the fate of our species and our planet. And once destroying our own planet, where will we go? What if the pollution we spew into the life-sustaining atmosphere of our home planet destroyes us before we discover the means to make the journey to another livable planet? The answer? Perhaps. But then again, perhaps not. The totally unpredictable next year is the subject of much debate, but even if we knew what was going to happen, there is little that we can do to stop it. However, I choose not to dwell on these things, and to move on, and see the lighter side. There is still snow, we are still alive, and we have a house.
Therefore to all of the planners out there I say: take a break. Go with the flow. I admit that I may be wrong, and can still be considered a child, but there are other things to concentrate on in the new year. A new year brings a chance to start over, a new chance to better ourselves. It offers more causes for celebration, and renews the plants all over the world. Though I cannot tell if what I say makes sense, I offer these consolations: If we all simply do the best we can, maybe we can make a better, brighter 2010.

Cannon Lewis II

Friday, January 8, 2010

Swim fast, swim hard

Dear readers (if any),
I am sorry for not posting for a couple of weeks. Right now I am very tired, so bear with me if my writing is atrocious.
Over the winter break my family went to Salzburg, but not until Christmas was over. During our trip to Salzburg there was no snow. Apparently we missed it by about a week! Go figure. However, we did have some fun seeing a marionette production of The Sound of Music, and going to the salt mines. Did you know that Salzburg means "salt fortress"? After the trip to Salzburg we stayed at home and played with the things we got for Christmas. My dad got a plasma screen T.V. and a blu-ray disc player, so we spent New Year's Eve watching movies.
This week was my first week back in school, and it was O.K. for the most part. The beginning of the week was fine, with little homework and few hindrances, but the past few days have been very tiring. Practices for the show Jekyll and Hyde have started, and I am a Newsboy. Not a very big part, but I hope to make a good impression onstage and get a better part next show. Because the rehearsals are from 6 to 9, I have not gotten much sleep this week. On top of all this, the water heater on the floor that my room is on broke, so now I have to sleep in the uncomfortable bed in the guest room. Allora!
The reason for the title of this post is the swim practice that I went to today. My brother and I are on a swim team, and go to practice on Tuesdays and Fridays. Normally it is pretty fun, but today was really painful. First of all, it was raining outside, so the guys got to go in to change earlier than the girls. Because we didn't get out of the locker room fast enough, Coach was mad. Then, it turned out that today was dry land work out day. This means that there were push-ups, jumping jacks, sit-ups, arm circles, and planks galore. Then, we spent 15 minutes swimming, during which we were supposed to swim 1,000 meters. For all of you non-swimmers out there, that is 40 lengths of the pool.
I suppose I should simply accept the fact that this week was just one long Monday, and get over it. Oh well. See you next week, and hopefully I will be less tired.

Cannon Lewis II