Was it my imagination, or was 2017 the longest year on record?  Tweet after laborious Tweet, a never-ending avalanche of political imbroglios, mass shootings, terror attacks, repeated threats of the deployment of nuclear weapons, alternate facts, tiki torches…  You know, Billy Joel should haul his ass out of his La-Z Boy and add about 10 more verses to “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

Of course, keeping your eye trained on the rearview mirror won’t help much with navigation.  That’s what our world needs: Navigators.  Waters once relatively calm and free from hidden shoals have become storm-battled, treacherous maelstroms.  Friendly harbors have become ideologically entrenched and unapproachable.

We need Navigators.

Twister champions, downhill skiers, World of Warcraft end-gamers, mountain climbers, people who read AND understand Proust, underwater cave explorers, people who instantly understood why the Elder Wand didn’t answer to Voldemort, crossword puzzle champs who complete the Sunday Times puzzle in under 6 minutes, Disney Park maintenance personnel, really good tap dancers, half-pipe champions, and Grand prix riders.  These are the people we need.

We don’t need old men and women who behave like Jim Henson’s Skeksis from “The Dark Crystal.”

We desperately need our 40 and 50-somethings to rise.  The world, and our ability to experience it resets itself by the nano-second.  We need young navigators who have come of age in the time of rapidly changing technology to step up and take the helm.  Of course, the incentive to do so is kinda lacking, except for the whole “let’s save the world before it’s too late.”  Happily, that’s enough for many, but not nearly enough for most.

I think that’s our challenge for 2018.  We’ve got to find our Navigators and get them woke and motivated.  Our Voldemort is the rapidly encroaching blanket of Nihilism that’s spreading itself around the world, erupting in bouts of truly senseless violence.  But we don’t need an Elder Wand because we ARE the Elders.

I wish you all a safe and prosperous 2018.  Start keeping your eyes peeled for Navigators, and if you find one, don’t let go.  Lindsey Graham, of all people – stated today that 2018 is going to be very “dangerous.”  Today, and perhaps only today, I believe him.  But it would be so sweet to prove him wrong.