Happy New Year!

Dan Miller's Blog ^ | December 31, 2012 | Dan Miller

[DanMiller]

2012 was a grim year. There have been many others. May 2013 and all following years be far better! It's pretty much up to us.

There have been reasons for sadness.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0MklIdTiaU?feature=player_detailpage]

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If we are to survive as a constitutional republic, our hopes and our spirits must remain high even in the face of defeat.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GowMI4wvmU4?feature=player_detailpage]

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We all have work to do. This should help us to do it.

One of my favorite poets, Rudyard Kipling, wrote

IF you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

If we can do that maybe, just maybe, some fine day we will all be able to sing along:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu8hwvvmEhc?feature=player_detailpage]

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Thank you, Bobby Burns

Critical update:

Just in case anyone else was asleep during the entire year and didn't notice, here is a synopsis by Dave Barry of the most important happenings of 2012.

[DanMiller]

If you have a chance, please watch the videos.

[NEWwoman]

Wonderful songs with much fighting spirit.
Tweeted the link to the blog.

[DanMiller]

Thanks, NEWwoman. Have a very Happy New Year!

[humblegunner]

Happy new year to you.

I’m sorry you feel your blog is a better place for your writing than Free Republic.

[Fiji Hill]

I picked this thread for my nine-thousandth post. Here's hoping the new year will be much happier than the old.

Cheer up! Good Times are Coming!--Phil Spitalny & His Orchestra

Here Comes the Sun--Katherine Smith

Happy New Year!

[DanMiller]

Many thanks! I enjoyed both. Do have a Happy New Year.

Dan

[Fiji Hill]

In the coming month, the Scottish community, both in Scotland and in the Scottish diaspora will be celebrating the birth of Robert Burns by staging Burns Nights, featuring music, dancing, whiskey and haggis

[DanMiller]

Thanks for the information. I wish I could attend one of the celebrations but living up in the rural highlands of the Republic of Panama, that seems impossible. I have heard about a celebration down in Puerto Lindo, in Panama but still very distant from here.

If you go to one of the celebrations, I'd like to hear about it.

[tsowellfan]

Thanks! I'll have to check out the videos later. Sounds interesting! Right now I'm browsing the Global City Webcams and watching the New Year arrive around the world.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!