Goodbye, 2014, good riddance, and fare thee well.  But let’s be reasonable.  I’ve had worse years and on a positive note: The worst is yet to come.

Still, 2014, with its ups and downs, makes 2015 the start of a golden era.

The best things about 2014 had for me to do with regaining focus and energy.  I read with more vigor and alacrity and concentration that ever.  Two books a week, recall and integration of what I read, and a good appreciation of ways to tell a story.  I’d say that I read many good books this year, and among the best was Ben Lerner’s, “To the Atocha Station,” which borrowed from John Ashbery in terms of structure and meanings.

I also am up to page 205 in the happy book I am writing about families.  And I’ve conducted 19 interviews for a book about prominent Indians (from India).

What made 2015 difficult in part was the fateful recognition that in order to write it is necessary at tines to create a situation of boredom, sadness, and worrying that the art is called upon to dispel.  That these conditions are engineered is a good thing.

Also good are ways to shake down the detritus of all that self-inflicted pain: Good food, lots of long walks, daily three mile runs.