Scene In Passing: Crystal ball gift: up, up & away (perhaps)

Today comes a holiday gift wrapped in newsprint and, appropriately enough, buried in the Nevada Appeal business section on this opinion page.

It’s worth the minuscule part of $1.50, the newsstand cost of this newspaper, or less if you’re a subscriber paying a lower long term rate. It’s actually priceless yet worth next to nil because it is a combination of everything I know and yet relies on my crystal ball. It’s about the future. Nobody knows the future, but any working class stiff observer like me sometimes can discern its outlines.

“The future is called ‘perhaps,’” said Tennessee Williams, “which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you.”

Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams III, American playwright known for his “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” had something there. It applies right now in my book. For my money, it’s no time to be scared. For me last week on Wall Street and Main Street — in our case Carson Street — was like a bell ringing or a gun going off to signal recovery’s end and boomlet’s beginning.

No guarantees, but it’s a good time to go all in regarding this economy.

For many at this holiday season, that will neither feel like nor even be the case. But for those with brains, guts and chutzpah — plus a good idea or two and a work ethic on which to capitalize — no better opportunity is likely to emerge later. That doesn’t mean times won’t keep getting get better, but that the gathering “animal spirits” of this economy have set the stage for real progress.

Citing evidence is the usual trick in such columns, but I’ll resist the temptation to go long and ramble on. I’ll just say the week showed a classic Dow Jones stock market reversal, inflation is mild in part due to the falling price of gasoline, and a host of other things make me sanguine, Locally, falling unemployment, spinoffs from Tesla Motors’ battery factory locating nearby, and government investing in the capital city’s future are heartening.

Evidence can just be rationale for seeing what you want, so I’ll repeat the caveat no one can predict the future precisely. Yet that can’t, nor should it right now, stop people from chasing their dreams, whether by indulging hobbies, getting a pet, flying a kite or throwing themselves into more serious pursuits. Build a career. Invest in a business, or stocks and bonds. Whatever, but plan for tomorrow and take action.

In the midst of this holiday season, as 2014 draws to a close, look into your own crystal ball. Take a flier or two on your dreams — both the crazy ones for enjoyment and the more thought-provoked variety designed to add the coin of the realm to your larder. No time like the present. As Williams, a playwright who understood both the psyche and life’s reality once put it:

“You can be young without money, but you can’t be old without it.”

John Barrette covers Carson City government and business. He can be reached at jbarrette@nevadaappeal.com.