It is nice to hear that there are at least two people who have read the Blog since yesterday. Thank you both (both of my friends in the Bay Area).

I share with you this beautiful (and very cold) morning my sense that January dawns for a new year and yet the traditional greeting of "happy new year" rings hollow to my ears.

To be sure, I want more happiness in the worlds of the people that I know.

To be realistic, however, is to know that the pain of 2008 will not end so quickly in 2009.

This sounds cynical. But I would prefer to think of it as realistic. Happiness has a better chance of sprouting from a realistic engagement with the world then a fantasy of perfection.