The New Year has arrived, and I think many of us are glad to wrap-up 2025. The anxiety and chaos that has become our daily bread in this country won’t stop because it’s a new year, of course, but the beginning of something always gives us a little boost of hope that change happens, no matter what. How it changes is largely up to us and how bad we want it. Ask 80% of people who made a resolution this week how they’re doing with that in March. 

What is hope? It is a hunch that the overwhelming brutality of facts that oppress and repress is not the last word. It is a suspicion that reality is more complex than realism wants us to believe and that the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual. -Rubem A. Alves

This is a quick "Welcome back!" newsletter. We will be back to the official editions of The Compass next week. I am always looking for interesting news, guest articles, and photos for the newsletter. Please send submissions to admin@uunewbedford by Mondays at 12:00 PM for the weekly Wednesday edition.