A new year

The year 2005 is now one day old. So far so good. I wonder what the new year will bring. The last one brought me some very precious moments. I think of my week in the inspiring city of Berlin last May, I think of the new friends I have met. And I especially think of my two weeks in New York last September. New York - the city of my heart, the city of my dear friend Gg. My stay at her place brought me my new dog-friend Roger!

There are in fact a lot of good things 2004 brought me. That is something to keep in mind when I think of the sad things of last year. We lost our dearest friend Marijne. Wim is no longer with us. Losses like that are hard to deal with. On a national scale: Holland has turned into a strange, directionless country that sometimes frightens me for its coldness. The world? We all know what’s going on in Iraq, we all know that a lot of people in Africa are starving, and we all see the pictures of the disaster in Asia.

Yesterday, on New Year’s Day, I watched the dvd of Live Aid, what brought back old memories. It’s almost twenty years ago that millions of people all around the world for one day shared the feeling that they cóuld make a difference. Well, I still like to believe that we can...
What 2005 will bring us? No-one can tell. I myself have got a good chance of losing my job, because of the fatal combination of bad economy and terrible management at the newspaper that I work for. And even if I keep my job it will be much less satisfying because of dramatic budget cuts. Holland might get colder when political issues as immigration and the influence of the islam will keep on turning people against each other. The world? Well…
Two months ago I met Cyndi Lauper in Rotterdam for an interview. She had a simple but very important message: ,,Stay connected to your heart. And hold your vision.'' Let that be my wish for this new year. Hold your vision.