EOY 2018

     It’s happened once again!  We are at the end of another year.  A bit difficult to believe but twelve months have come and gone and I am now posting my last blog for 2018.  I would have never thought that almost 365 days ago when I began I would reach 100 blog posts during 2018.  But it has happened with this post!

     Many things have happened during this past year that I would like to take a few moments to speak about.

    “ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”  Charles Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities”.

     As I look back over the year it seems to me that Mr. Dickens may have had 2018 in mind when he wrote those words so many years ago.  It appears that we sit on the verge of many great and unbelievable discovers and advancements for mankind, however we are unable to control our most basic fears and achieve peace amongst ourselves.

     With the advancement of the internet a real plethora of information is available to the entire world simply for push of a few buttons or clicks of a mouse and yet worldwide we are some of the most foolish people who have lived.

     We go into the beginning of each new year with the greatest of hope for humankind; however, by the years’ end we are faced with many disappointments.  2018 has been no different.  We felt that perhaps during this year we could draw mankind together with a bond of love and peace.  But what we have seen is the constant activities of mass shootings, gang violence, almost a total lack of human compassion, and sadly the devaluation of the value of human life in general.

     Perhaps as Mr. Dickens stated this has only been another year “in a superlative degree of comparison only.”  We are coming to the end for the statistics of 2018.  How will they “stack up” to the numbers of years past?  How will we use what we have learned during this year to in some fashion help us build a better year to come?  Or, have we been able to learn anything at all?

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"There can be no better time to change your future

than the moment in which you currently live."