The older I get, the more each New Year’s Eve finds me wondering, “Will it be a happy year?”

I know there will be many unexpected events in 2015, just as there are every year. And, of course, while we hope otherwise, we know that not all of those events will be happy. In our increasingly complicated and unstable world, New Year’s Eve feels as much like bracing for the next onslaught of things to endure (or ignore) as it does a joyous welcoming of hope and new chances. While we are not quite pessimistic, the wide-eyed, everything-is-possible optimism of years past seems to have been replaced with an everything-is survivable kind of optimism. The magic of youth has faded, for ourselves and this country. Our glorious “city on a hill” is now in a deep trough, buried under $18 trillion dollars of debt, $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities, cynicism, and political opportunism. Such realities make optimism seem silly, even on New Year’s Eve.

But…one thing this Baby-Boomer has also learned is that if anything is eternal, it is hope. It’s hope that led me to renew this blog for another year, even though I hardly touched it last year. Hope. At my age, I know the world isn’t waiting for my opinions, thoughts, or feelings about anything…but, I still hope that one idea or thought might touch one other person. More than that, there is still so much I hope to learn, so much I hope to understand.

So, here’s to another Happy New Year, and the hope that it we will find some happiness in it.