I don’t do round-ups or retrospectives or any other kind of year-end wrap-up, partially because I’m too lazy, but  also because First Night/New Year’s Eve isn’t, for me, a time to look back. It’s a time to pause and look around, and then step forward into the yet-unknown.

But there  are things about 2019 I want to remember, in that pause.  The good: the publication of Gabriel’s Road and Lightning Strikes,  a trip to Ireland with friends old and new, my nephew’s marriage, the  finding of new friend  and allies. And oh yeah, not dying.  And also the bad: the seemingly endless corruption and moral cowardice of our current government, the no-longer-hidden streak  of cruelty and violence in too many of our fellow citizens.  I want to remember in that pause that the good  is greater than the bad,  and it will in the end be stronger, because nothing good happens alone.  We happen together. 

Hold onto that.  Hold onto each other, in all the gloriously complicated mess that is this world.  Hold on, pause long enough really look around, and step forward.

And, as is my traditional toast and wish; may the best of 2019 be the very worst that we see  in 2020, and the very best be wonderful beyond all hope.

I’ll see you all there.