Just how good were the 2009 predictions?

October 29th, 2009 at 10:44am Linda Grist Cunningham

Here we are at the end of October with Christmas and New Year’s on the horizon. I could sound like a crone and wonder aloud where the heck the year has gotten to. Instead, I went back to December 2008 and dusted off my predictions for 2009. I wrote them on New Year’s Eve.You can read the whole list here; I was most interested in these:

“First, we’ll start with a brutal fact. The next six months are going to be terrible, as the global economy contracts and sheds jobs, cash, security and sanity. By mid-year, we will begin to adjust to the new realities though we will remain hunkered down; by the end of October, we’ll begin to think we will be able to manage; by Christmas we will have traded multiple gifts for a single one that means something.”

So, at the end of October, are we beginning to think we can manage? Most days I think we are. That’s good.

“By March 2010, we will be adjusted to the new way and by Christmas of 2010, we’ll understand that peace on earth is a far better goal than a new iPhone or X Box. We will make less, spend less, value quality, chose charitable over capital, and begin replacing cars, repairing the roof and buying a home.”

I remain hopeful that that will be true.

“When 2011 rolls around, we’ll feel we are back in control — sort of — and that we can handle what’s thrown at us — sort of. By 2012, assuming we do not blow ourselves away in some nuclear snit, we will begin to build again.  By 2013, new normal will be “the way it’s always been.” It will be five years of hanging on as best we can, letting go of any thought that the future will be like the past. But, we will do it.”

That’s what it means to have faith; do not despair.

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