“One day, all of this will be yours” came the claim with a big smile as an arm slowly waved out horizontally. Up on the mountain, surveying the landscape below, the firm bedrock propping us up as we watched. From these dizzy heights, the people down below were as ants to us.
“I can see my house from here” I joked, “how did we get up here anyway?”. “What do you mean? Weren't you here? We climbed a wall of worry, remember? Three steps forward for every step back. All you need are cojones. Take a big risk to reap a big reward. Truth be told, we were never in any real danger.. the feds had our backs all along. They've put the pedal to the metal on this rocketship, we’re going to the stratosphere!” he said as he stared skyward. “Rocketship?” I mumbled as the firm mountain quivered. Legs turn to jelly and a feeling of terrified inebriation takes hold. The people below disappear and now even the cars are ants at these record heights.
“What’s wrong with you? Isn't this great? Don’t look down!”. Indeed, we are on top of the world, but it is a long way down. And what goes up must come down. "What when we run out of juice? Something's got to give in the end!" I warned with arms flailing. “It’s alright, I have a parachute!” he grinned as he started to don a yellow backpack. “Oh, don’t you have one? Hmm. Here, you can hold my umbrella”. I closed my eyes tight and braced as I felt the engines splutter.
“Something that cannot go on forever will one day come to an end”, but how much longer do we have? This trip cannot end well, but you can spend years gritting your teeth and clutching your opened umbrella, waiting for the fallout that is inevitable in the long run. But as you know, in the long run, we are all dead. Right now, it’s still full speed ahead, but as the turbo booster is tapered down and the long-awaited, much talked about moment, where the foot starts to gingerly, slowly, lift off of the accelerator approaches, we can expect quite a fireworks display. This is the year.
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| One year in |
