Letter from the Editor - December 2007

Welcome to Another Day in Paradise.

Optimism, is it a decision, a delusion, or a force of nature?

When the mirage that shimmers just out of reach, that unique special thing that you want above all, one day all-of-a-sudden, careens sharply into focus and within your grasp…it makes you wonder; especially in this holiday season when occasionally great gifts do arrive unexpectedly. It makes you wonder about unfounded, unjustified, unwarranted, (dare I say fanciful) optimism, and where it just might get you.

Everyday, every action, every decision, every step you take, opens some doors and closes others forever. This notion need not be some heavy weight of responsibility, it can be an inspiring realization that every day has an unlimited amount of possible outcomes. If we were the mathematical type, we could devise an exact formula to illustrate for you just how many possible ways your life can be changed in one day. Just how many opportunities you could be welcoming in with each conversation, each step down the road, each wandering thought. (Or perhaps that is just ridiculous optimism, to think one could actually calculate the infinite.) But before we rush off and sharpen our pencils, let’s just agree, it’s a pretty large number. And it’s that indefinable number—the mere scope of possibility—that keeps me optimistic.

Even now as we come to the close of 2007, with the static and the strife of the outside world increasingly clamoring at the door of our (ever-more-teeming, no-longer-so-little) beach town…I feel a decision, a delusion, or a force of optimism, is definitely in order.

Here’s hoping you get everything you want for Christmas and that the New Year brings you even more than you hoped for!

Until next time