I find myself once again with a post in this webspace coming out as people wake, many hung over, for the first time in the year. Unlike last time, I will offer a bit of retrospection; the year now gone away was a strange one and hard for many people, and I do not think I am alone either in being glad to see it go or in hoping that the one now started will be better. I can hope there will be less upheaval, certainly, and that the year now gone will be an exceptional year–and that the normal that emerges will be better for more people than not.

It is a bit cliché, of course. Much as I deplore such things, I am not immune to them; I am a product of my backgrounds and situations, after all, although I am not wholly governed by them. None of us are, though all of us must contend with who and where and when we come from. What the past year will force us to contend with is not entirely clear, although some things stand out, as others have observed with far more incisive wit than I find myself able to muster as I write this–if ever I can do so. Not even the staircase seems to be helping my thoughts on the matter this time.

I do not mean to make many changes in this webspace, at least not in the near future. The Hobb Reread will still go forward, and I hope to add to the Fedwren Project a bit more this year than last. Since I’m still not teaching and still not looking to do so, I’ll not be returning to posting lesson plans or class reports, although I might have some other things come up. I don’t yet know. I don’t expect to, really; I’ve looked at the past for far more of my life than I’ve looked to the future.

Maybe I ought to see about changing some of that.

Am I an auld acquaintance now forgot? Or will you send a little something my way?