Let the Ball Drop . . .

It's New Year's Eve and all around, people are "getting ready." Some are getting dressed for dinner, others are setting up for a huge party, and still others are looking to see what in on TV tonight that will take their minds off of being alone on such a "happy" night. The question is, though, what is the world celebrating?
After the year that was, both for me personally, and for the world in general, I believe that the celebration is not for welcoming the new year as much as it is actually celebrating the survival of the old. We've had personal tragedy, financial ruin, and famine, pestilence, disease, war, hurricanes, floods . . . all of the wonderful things that filled 2005 with such joy. We've seen people we loved in our lives gone forever while others, whom we detest, have stuck to us like glue. We've watched people get rich as we get poor, others be rewarded for their "sins" while good people are trammeled under their boots, and a general diminution of hope for the future, yet we're still here.
So, what's ahead for 2006? Are we to suffer more of the same, or will we and the remainder of the world have learned to turn things around and make things better "for us and our posterity." I suggest the latter. I'm not taking a pollyanna attitude, or forgetting to look around the corner to see the terrible things that potential await me next week. On the contrary, I'm entering 2006 with my eyes wide open, but my attitude adjusted. We will succeed in 2006. We will prevail. We will make a difference and enter 2007 with a better life in a better world.
There are those who would think it folly to believe that next year will be any better than the last. They are wrong; it would be folly not to. When we stop believing that world in general, and our world in particular will be a better place, then there is no point in going on. I, for one, plan to go on. I for one plan to continue. Therefore, let the ball drop . . .