Endings vs. Beginnings

I feel like I have bought a LOT of sympathy cards lately. It has not been a good couple of weeks for grandparents. The juxtaposition of this with today being the first day of spring really struck me. I have my own little theory of how things work, we could call it the Broad Way, if we were so inclined, and while it hasn't been codified or compiled in any logical manner it exists in a free floating form in my head. (Much as just about anything exists in my head, although if you should never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, then equally true is never go against Broad when 80s music trivia is on the line. Lethal.)

The Broad Way strongly espouses that reincarnation is a possibility, because why would God be wasteful? The Broad Way has also concluded that most people create a lot of the drama in their own lives; loving someone involves so much more than being in love with them; and sometimes a half hour spent in Target is all you need to cleanse a troubled soul. I could go on, but you get the idea.

But all the recent losses for my friends and their families coupled with the idea of spring as a time of rebirth makes me pause. Which leads me to think that the Broad Way needs an amendment. Let's call it the teeter totter amendment—equal good and bad must happen in the world for things to stay in balance. I don't think there can be an change for the future without some sort of loss from the past. Change can be good or bad.  So can loss. Sometimes we loose things and it turns out to be the best thing in the world for us, it kicks us in the butt and helps us to move forward. Sometimes we gain things that restrict our ability to live the way we should.

Where am I going with this? Good question. Not sure I have a good answer, but to put it into a worldview/political perspective, I noticed today's headline on the local paper put my state's unemployment rate at 9.9%. That is the average of course, some counties are higher, some lower, but overall that is a high number. Obviously that is bad. Ben Bernecke has recently said that the US recession could be over by the end of this year. While the end of the recession certainly won't mean that all the people who have lost jobs have found new ones, it will mean that our economy will be on a more stable footing and hopefully the massive job losses will be a thing of the past. Good. Perhaps even better, would be if we came out of this with a better grasp on how our money is invested and what gains are realistic and sustainable.

So today is the first day of spring. New things are coming, it is a beginning.