The New Year’s conundrum

It’s a very strange thing:

Each new year we stay up late

We stand in awe of fireworks

We engage in sentimental review.

And we make our resolutions anew. 

The same as last year, and the years before.

We somehow hope for a year ahead 

That is kinder, fairer, with greater leadership; 

Perhaps not the leadership we deserve...

You know, one that mirrors the collective greed, complicity, insecurity, licentiousness.

But leadership that calls us to greatness, and demands greatness from those who lead.

A year ahead less brutal than the past 

With less mayhem, murder, grief.

Less sadness.

Yet, we know in the depths of our being

We fool ourselves and others.

For it is the human condition to lust, hate, and maul.

To destroy the beauty of the natural world

In the name of progress, order, orthodoxy. 

So we will again, each new year, engage in the same pantomime of hope and disappointment.

And we will hope, for without hope there is annihilation. 

So, my friends, raise a glass, toast a friend, make your resolutions.

And join with me as we, together, boldly proceed into a future of which we can only dread and dream.