December 27, 2025
Saturday

From the J this morning: “8:00 am/32º — Where do we go from here? Wrong question. I know where I’m going from here: into the future. The better question: How do I go from here?”

The picture above is the one I couldn’t find yesterday. It’s still relevant. Good King Wenceslas certainly knows where he’s going, and how he’s going to get there. He is taking pine logs to yonder peasant, and he is walking. He is followed by his young page, who bears a basket containing the gifts of food the king wishes to provide. He’s walking, too, soothing his cold feet in his master’s footsteps. It might be better, in my opinion, for them both to be wearing hats knitted caps. But it can be inferred that the king knows what he is doing, and the page trusts him.

I am at home tonight, on Day 2 of my Zwischen den Jahren period, those days between the Feast of Stephen and New Year’s Day when I take stock of the old year and plan for the new. Yesterday I left the house only to obtain the supplies I will need to sustain me for the full seven days. I plan to see no one and go nowhere until the pork and sauerkraut event a friend has invited me to in the late afternoon of January 1st.

This afternoon I began reviewing all the J material I amassed in 2025. It totals just under 500 pages, and hoo, wow, was that an eye-opener! The material begins on December 1, 2024. I got through half the month when I had to quit. I had not understood, neither then nor now in retrospect, just how deeply depressed I was, how depressed Ron and I were, trying to move together to an inevitable moment that we could feel was coming but could not define. The experience was so demoralizing that I am almost ready to discontinue it, write off 2025, and concentrate only on forward motion.

My direction tonight is clear — straight ahead. I hope you’ll come with me.