A new year, all fresh and bright

Jan. 1 is the day for making New Year's resolutions — a tradition I've never cared much for. The new year itself is so arbitrary. Jan. 1 has no astronomical significance. It's not an equinox or a solstice, just an arbitrary date for turning the calendar. But a new year, like a new day, is an appropriate time to make plans and set a schedule.

My resolution for 2009 is not to find a new job but to find a new career. My three months of enforced idleness (although I can produce a list of things I've accomplished since my layoff) have made me eager for a new purpose, a new mission, new goals. I hope to have a solid new purpose, a new set of skills to nurture and a clearer path to the future. Just make it soon.

2009 has to be better than 2008, when gasoline rose to over $4 a gallon and a housing and credit crisis saw the stock market collapse, housing prices fall and retirement plans crash and burn. There are already some indications that the worst might be behind us. The stock market has edged up in the past couple of weeks. There have been no more falls in the Dow Jones of hundreds and hundreds of points in a single day. The market shrugged off the election of a presumably less-free-market-oriented Democrat, and some investors are hoping the president-elect's plans for an infusion of infrastructure funding will boost employment and stock prices.

The Iraq War is scheduled to wind down, no matter what President-elect Obama does. The U.S. handed over control of the Green Zone today, and U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Iraqi cities this summer. Iraq is still a long, long way from stability and peacefulness, but conditions are improving, and American troops are scheduled to get out of the way.

We still face difficult times in 2009. Unemployment is at its highest in 20 years and will not go down quickly. Credit remains tight, despite efforts to expand the money supply and subsidize banks and other lenders. Everyone's retirement plans will take a long time to recover from their early 2008 or late 2007 levels.

But a new year brings hope, even if the date is arbitrary, even if times are difficult. Today dawned clear and bright. Let us hope that it is a harbinger of brighter times ahead for all of us.