Happy New Year!

 

Goodbye to 2025, welcome 2026.

This is a winter poem by Rudyard Kipling that my dad liked:

A Carol

Our Lord Who did the Ox command
To kneel to Judah’s King,
He binds His frost upon the land
To ripen it for Spring—
For to ripen it for Spring, good sirs,
According to His word;
Which well must be as ye can see—
And who shall judge the Lord?

When we poor fenmen skate the ice
Or shiver on the wold,
We hear the cry of a single tree
That breaks her heart in the cold—
That breaks her heart in the cold, good sirs,
And rendeth by the board;
Which well must be as ye can see—
And who shall judge the Lord?

Her wood is crazed and little worth
Excepting as to burn
That we may warm and make our mirth
Until the Spring return—
Until the Spring return, good sirs,
When people walk abroad;
Which well must be as ye can see—
And who shall judge the Lord?

God bless the master of this house,
And all that sleep therein!
And guard the fens from pirate folk,
And keep us all from sin,
To walk in honesty, good sirs,
Of thought and deed and word!
Which shall befriend our latter end—
And who shall judge the Lord?

It appeared at the end of Kipling's children's or young people's book, Rewards and Fairies. And I think he may have borrowed elements of it from traditional folk songs. But anyway an interesting poem.

I have in mind to do a little exercise for the new year, could we each pick one concern, and one hope for 2026? I know that there are a lot more concerns than one. Which is why I limited it.  The hope can either be a collective one for the nation, or an individual one.  

I'll go first.  One of my biggest concerns is AI and how we will deal with it.  I could have picked "America first" and the whole xenophobic thing.  But that isn't actually new, it is something that surfaces from time to time, and we have always managed to rise above it, when we didn't have any other option. AI is something new.  Though there are echoes in the stories we tell, and in myth.  I am thinking of the Tower of Babel, and the Flight of Icarus. The downfall is always in hubris, the temptation of overreach, and arrogance. Can we learn how to manage it to avoid the worst effects of economic and job disruption?  We need to think  fast.

And my pick for hope, my oldest granddaughter graduates from high school in the spring, and I have hope that she can find her way forward on the path of life, as we all did. She is a good kid, who does well in school. And has friends that she interacts with in person, and doesn't spend an inordinate amount of time online.  I think that is important. She is a hard worker, already has a part time job.  Talks about majoring in aviation and being an airline pilot.  Of course that goal could change with time.  But I don't think at least that AI could replace that job.  

Does anyone want to go next?