As the granules of sand in the hourglass trickles away the final hours, minutes and seconds of 2008, the white robe worn by Father Time is soiled and tattered from one of the most tested years in history.
His typically lengthy, graying hair lays at his feet as from loss due to cancer-ridden devastation, a stark indicator that the challenges of the past 12 months have taken a huge toll on his appearance and stature; the balding is symbolic of fallen financial markets the world over.
His looks are a far cry from the hopeful infancy of nearly 12 months to what now seems the too distant past. The fireworks on the eve of 2008 were made in China, his robe woven in India, the sandals imported from Mexico and the sickle, as used by the Grim Reaper to harvest human lives and souls, a symbolic example of an agriculture industry meant for humanity's nourishment that is, instead, diverted to mankind's energy consumption. Father Time has a global presence.
The typically cute and chubby Baby New Year is doing poorly; the failed attempts to induce labor for a head start on a new era of hope has put his goodwill efforts at a disadvantage, necessitating life support in the form of an injection of bailout serum, perhaps nothing more than a temporary shot of adrenalin but with President-elect Barack Obama, the chosen healer in the U.S, prepared to administer one booster after another.
Instead of wearing a silk sash announcing the New Year, the poor little tyke will be seen holding a cardboard protest sign with 2009 written in graffiti, and the diaper held in place with paperclips instead of a safety pin, signifying a year of uncertainty.
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