From Jerry:

The great thing about bidding a not so fond adieu to 2008 is that it will defy nostalgia. Not even folk singers will be able to look back at this year with longing.

Oh, good. It's not just me, then.

Lines from this poem popped into my head, yesterday morning, after hearing more bad news from Gaza/Isreal; there's a reading of it on one of my family's favorite Christmas albums (I think it was the same album with The Gloustershire Wassail). I was propted to Google for it yesterday, to remind myself of the whole thing, and post it to my LiveJournal. It's my way of fighting back:

From In Memoriam A.H.H. By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

                               106

    Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
       The flying cloud, the frosty light :
       The year is dying in the night ;
    Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

    Ring out the old, ring in the new,
       Ring, happy bells, across the snow ;
       The year is going, let him go ;
    Ring out the false, ring in the true.

    Ring out the grief that saps the mind
       For those that here we see no more ;
       Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
    Ring in redress to all mankind.

    Ring out a slowly dying cause,
       And ancient forms of party strife ;
       Ring in the nobler modes of life,
    With sweeter manners, purer laws.

    Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
       The faithless coldness of the times ;
       Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
    But ring the fuller minstrel in.

    Ring out false pride in place and blood,
       The civic slander and the spite ;
       Ring in the love of truth and right,
    Ring in the common love of good.

    Ring out old shapes of foul disease ;
       Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ;
       Ring out the thousand wars of old,
    Ring in the thousand years of peace.

    Ring in the valiant man and free,
       The larger heart, the kindlier hand ;
       Ring out the darkness of the land,
    Ring in the Christ that is to be.