New Year wishes
I was going to make the appropriate 'Happy New Year' wishes to all those who read this, and then I thought, is 'a happy year' the best good (Socrates vs pig issue)? Ringing in my mind was Dorothy Parker's 'Fair Weather':
This level reach of blue is not my sea;
Here are sweet waters, pretty in the sun,
Whose quiet ripples meet obediently
A marked and measured line, one after one.
This is no sea of mine, that humbly laves
Untroubled sands, spread glittering and warm.
I have a need of wilder, crueler waves;
They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.
and although I've done my share of complaining about the trials of the last couple of years, I also remember some years which looked calm but were not, in the long run, so fruitful, did not have the same important turning-points, as years which were much more ruffled and choppy and uncomfortable. And while I like a bit of peace and quiet and time to contemplate, after a bit that can get very stale. And lines from a hymn come back from my childhood:
Not for ever by still waters
Would we idly rest and stay,
But would strike the living fountains
From the rocks about our way.
- Maria Willis (1824-1908)
So I could wish for you what I should like myself, which is a liveable balance between challenges and times of calm and peace. Or, since as wishing for others what one would like oneself has its limitations, I could wish for you the year you would wish for yourselves. I think I'll go with the latter, and hope that it is acceptable.