Here's my prediction - 2002 will start on or about Jan. 1

If you ask me what the future holds, I won't give you a very good answer.

There are some folks out there who have good answers -- interesting, enticing, promising -- but, as it will turn out, inaccurate.

Look at that. I made a prediction. I just predicted that most other predictions will be wrong.

That's a safe prediction to make about people who make predictions for a living.

You know these people. They're the ones who make predictions about the new year in newspapers and magazines and on TV and radio programs. They are taken seriously. Some of them get paid a lot of money to say something catchy about 2002.

Here's something else I can tell you about people who make predictions for a living:

If they were right even half the time, they wouldn't be making predictions. They would be living lavishly off knowing what is going to happen most of the time.

I'm terrible at making predictions. And you know I don't have a lavish bone in my body.

I am frequently asked to predict the winners of political elections. For decades, I have had a ready answer: I'll gladly tell you who the winner will be -- the day after the election.

Now I can't even use that excuse, thanks to last year's presidential election whose outcome was uncertain for weeks.

As 2001 draws to a close, it seems to me Americans are in a more reflective and somber mood than I can ever remember. For the time being, we remember before Sept. 11 and after Sept. 11. The terrorist attacks that day have seared into our psyches a benchmark that won't fade for a long time.

How we will change as a people and how our futures will be affected is wide open to speculation. Even the professional predictors are less prepared to speak with authority.

Some say our future well-being will depend on our personal faith -- faith in God, in each other, in the institutions upon which we rely, in ourselves.

Some say our future hinges on the economy and the ability of a nation to lift its financial fortune to new heights in a worldwide marketplace.

Some say this nation must rely on its political leaders to chart a sensible course whose destination is the commonweal of the people with fewer detours into partisan rancor.

Some say we must heed our religious leaders and those who are our companions in this earthly journey of spiritual fulfillment.

Some say our military might will restore whatever measure of safety we thought we had before Sept. 11.

Some say our children are the hope for the future, and our love and nurturing will determine what the world is like a generation from now.

Some say it is the responsibility of each individual to help family, neighbors and friends to find the way that lies ahead, relying on tried and true values that existed before Sept. 11.

Here's what I say:

It will take all of this. And more.

And laughter.

No matter what the future holds, the paths are smoother and the byways are more clearly marked when we find a reason to smile or laugh out loud.

No matter what.

Here's something to make you smile: This column is over. No need to go on and on about something you could have predicted for yourself.

May your 2002 be whatever you want to make of it, and may you want to make it the best year ever.

And laugh. Always laugh.

R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.