Predicting the future feels a bit like predicting the weather. Without the sagacity of a professional, it’s dicey. Weatherman is not a job for me…everyone is watching…that’s a high-pressure system.

Brick Tamland from “Anchorman” as portrayed by Steve Carell.

For the last several days, we’ve been stuck to the live stream of Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath, waiting to see how the storm would play out on the Eastern Seaboard. Occasionally friends conserving their batteries power up and post, to keep us posted:

“hunkered down and hoping for the best.”
“candelabras and victrolas in the west village. weathering the storm in style.”

From a distance, we didn’t get much more. A few words. Then the power went out. Powerless, the world felt bigger when we lost connection.

Hurricane Sandy kept the world watching and waiting. October 2012.

Often, to the irritation of our anticipation, we have to wait until something is over to find out what happened. I get it. That’s time passing and how history is made.

And still I get anxious, jump the gun, lose my patience, page forward to sneak a peek at the last paragraph in the book. And work myself into hysterics about horoscopes. In not-so-subtle ways I become like a ship adrift on a stormy sea, bobbing directionless in the face of an unproven prediction.

I should not read my horoscope before the month is over. I infer. I worry. I sit up nights like a ninny. At the end of October I know I shouldn’t have gazed into the predictive crystal ball of November, but I did. My November horoscope was simultaneously murky and manic to the effect of “TIE UP ALL THE LOOSE ENDS!”, which of course made me a nervous nit. I have a LOT of loose ends!

Flummoxed and  fussing, I posted my frustrations online to my Ninja Network.

Then NinjaOohLaLa posited, “How about having one of your ninjas write your horoscope from now on?”

Brilliant. Let the folks I KNOW help illuminate the path.

And LogicNinja opined: “Your future has nothing proximate to do with the locations of the stars and planets (unless you’re about to get clobbered by a heretofore undiscovered meteorite). Rather, your future is determined by more proximate causes, primarily, your own mind and its desires. You’ll work towards a goal to the extent you desire the goal, and to the extent you desire to engage in the work needed to reach that goal. Your unique goals and desires are probably not fully known to you, though you might be able to infer what they are from your past performance.”

Precisely. RELY on collaborators in community to help set my compass star.

So… I will ask my Ninjas. Shall we change from horoscope to Ninjascope? Yes, we decided. Let’s do that. Here’s my interpretation:

ninja·scope
noun ˈnɪndʒə-ˌskōp

Definition of NINJASCOPE
1 KNOW
: a discovery of the fascinating qualities of friends and the events in their lives for use in predicting what mighty and awesome adventures might occur next (aka taking active interest in your Ninja Network)
2 RELY
: a ninjalogical forecast (aka the kind of inspiring note you’d write if you were charged with crafting a prediction of the future or “best next steps” for your Ninja)

A Ninjascope is a course charted with the assistance of NINJAS!

Your assignment, should you chose to accept it, is to post below an interesting Ninjascope that someone might adopt. Bright and hopeful futures welcome.

You get it. You got it. Go get ’em.

P.S. This update just in from optimistic voices on the east coast:
“Power back on this morning just before 6…enjoying ability to shower, eat, and check Facebook! Hoping everyone else is doing okay….”

You’re out of the woods, you’re out of the dark, you’re out of the night.
Step into the sun, step into the light.
Keep straight ahead for the most glorious place on the face of the earth or the sky.
Hold onto your breath, hold onto your heart, hold onto your hope.
March up to the gate and bid it open.
~Lyrics from “Optimistic Voices”, The Wizard of Oz