humbly marking a new year for humanity

---

We grow up, achieve a lot (at best), pay forward (please), and move on—maybe contributing to others’ lives.

Time tells. Learning never ends.

Anyway, my map is clear to me now, after some years of somewhat improvising, like hiking difficult hills to prepare for a high climb together.

I feel ready—audacious and shameless.

During my daily walk around campus—which is commonly 
an occasion for new ideas—I thought, trivially (but funny for California): Who would have thought, a month ago, that we’d be glad for a few hours without rain?

Somewhat ironically, nasty warming at the Arctic (which accelerates release of methane under melting permafrost, which accelerates global warming) pushed the jet stream south, which crashed into the north-
easterly Pacific currents, thus undoing two years of drought—but too quickly!

---