2010, here I come! ~ By Barbara Simpson

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

By Barbara Simpson Posted: December 20, 2009 ~ 10:35 am Eastern © 2009 I don't usually make New Year's resolutions. They tend to be predictable and trite. They're easy to list and easier to ignore! I've done my share of that. Maybe it relates to age. When we're young and dumb, we think we can do and accomplish anything. All we have to do is make a list and it's done! So we make resolutions, which usually have to do with how we'll act or respond to something – or how we'll change something. Usually that "something" relates to a negative aspect of our lives. When we're older, we're usually wiser – which means we're smart enough to know what we will or won't do. We're smart enough to know that resolving to give up a bad habit – or start a good one – just because it's Dec. 31 is an exercise in futility. Or stupidity. Or stubbornness. Or maybe, just plain wishful thinking and silliness. But what's the point? In fact, the whole idea of New Year's resolutions has faded over the last decades. Maybe it had a lot to do with the fact that we've just gone through a phenomenal period of economic success and a bubble of luxury. We had jobs, money, time and the ability to fulfill dreams. Not everyone, of course, but enough of us that we really had a pretty cushy life. There were jobs and trips and clothes and entertainment. There was money for just about anything we wanted, and if we didn't have the cash, there was credit – plenty of credit. It was easy to get and easy to increase. The guidelines that we may once have been taught by parents and teachers, who understood what a budget was and who knew what would happen when it doesn't balance, were lost in the heady excesses that were ours. It was fun and easy, especially when the bank was willing to give us more than we asked for and tell us there was more where that came from. Credit cards filled our mailboxes and became the means to the dream. Want that world trip? Charge it. Make a movie or take a year off to write that book? Do it on the charge card. When one card is full, pay it off with another. Talk about a house of cards, and, like any such structure, one day it all fell down. READ FULL STORY >