The late Bill Vaughan, who wrote a syndicated column for the Kansas City Star from 1946 until his death in 1977, once penned, “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” I’m sure that there are many people who fall into the latter category this year. For those of you who have struggled through a difficult year, I recommend adopting the philosophy of another late journalist, Edward Payson Powell, who mused: “The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!”

There is no doubt that the past year has been a difficult one. As a natural optimist, however, I always believe that the future holds great opportunities as well as further challenges. So as you raise your glasses to the dawning of a New Year, I recommend you drink to this toast: “Here’s to the bright New Year, and farewell to the old; here’s to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold.” I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.