Hope 🤞

You know there is a lot to fear out there in the world today. Things are rapidly changing, and it’s not always clear if those changes are for the better. That said, a lot of things were broken, and despite all the bluster and talk of the politicians, the conventional wisdom was failing in many ways. I keep seeing those ads for depression treatment and reading about depression, and people who live without hope of a better tomorrow, and I know I am not one of them.

For one, despite the cold and harsh winter that has been, spring is coming. We are less then a week away from the time change, and while it’s still been cold, it seems like cold is breaking, with more and more days above freezing and rain coming for the mid-week. Next Sunday the time is changing, meaning it will be light well after 7 PM, and riding home tonight, I couldn’t help but think once the ice is off the rail trail, I’ll be able to ride out to Voorheesville after work and listen to the peepers.

It’s not to say I’m not unnerved by what is happening in Washington DC or even Albany. But being in the suburban office, working on data all day long, I feel somewhat isolated from it all. I have that serenity of riding my bike each day to work. It’s not that I don’t feel the pain of the stock market declines, though lately I’ve been buying more and more bonds, so most of the losses are on paper then reality. Unless I had bought that homestead with cash I was looking at, I never would have cashed in on it highest value. That said, I’m not convinenced the markets will remain down for more then a few years — too many rich and powerful people derive the majority of their wealthy from stocks — business leaders aren’t paid much in cash these days and if they can’t sell it, they don’t have any money.

I am not convienced that all of Donald Trump’s bad policies will stick around that long. Some might, the better ones. Honestly, the system was broken, and while many of his ideas are absurd, maybe we should investigate the alternatives. But I am not that taken one way or another, I am just focusing on the future, saving and investing, continue to research, read and learn about building that homestead I want to build. Nothing fancy, just a home that I can live in, as far removed as possible from the insanity that seems to have gripped the country these days, where everything is about buy, buy and consume.

Truth is that I could have that cabin today, that place in the mountains. I have money saved up, I have skills and a solid work history if I wanted to start off on a new track. I could move to a state without all the gun and open burning restrictions, where I could build the homestead I want. Have the wood stove, a burning barrel, chickens, goats and pigs. But I love my job, and I’m doing good work moving the agency forward. To leave now would inevitably leave on a path to lower wages and I know if I wait my savings will grow. It’s not like I’m not that far from early retirement where I have more options to build that homestead in a community that suits my values. Really hopeful things that I’m taking one step at a time to make reality.