Perhaps prophetically I am staring at the soothing late afternoon sunset overlooking Calibogue Cay on the first day of January, 2017. Though there are clouds and slender grey streaks, the predominance is a soft orange light evaporating into the blue and pink ether. The alluring sunset has transfixed silhouettes of people along the sandy white shore. They stare into the mauve distance. A restfulness has descended as the year 2017 approaches the conclusion of its first day.

Around the world on New Year’s Day people everywhere will be similarly witnessing their own predictions and conclusions about the future. Sadly even the most peripheral acquaintance with the affairs of the world lays bare an outlook for the future which is sometimes dispiriting. It would however be paralytic to become consumed by the distress. The inevitability of this life is its own inarguable logic for its enjoyment.