I return those wishes and extend them to our friends on either side of the Great Puddle.

At the risk of proselytising, might I add this sentiment to those for whom the future looks dark in this country (hinted at above). Please take heart, for even though the next several years look grim (and the last eight were no great shakes, if I'm honest), we can make them as good as can be done under the circumstances by our own actions, activism, beliefs, and strengths.

I live near Gettysburg on one of the bloodiest bits of ground in this country. My parents lived and worked through WWII, and their childhood coincided with the Great Depression. Just one leg of my family, like many in Britain, lost some forty-odd young men to war in the 20th century if my father's research is correct. Thirteen of them died just in the Department of the Somme during the Great War. Yet, they still found something to be thankful for, whether on Thanksgiving Day in America or during the Yuletide season.

We'll be alright as long as we remember the strength and spirit of our forefathers and forebearers. We'll be fine as we remember how we not only managed but thrived during the economic times of the '70s and early '80s, we remember the upheavals of the Civil Rights Movement, the early years of environmentalism, modern feminism, the beginnings of equalities for those of the gay community, all in the face of a failed "Establishment" who had their own political temper tantrums with the likes of Johnson and Nixon. Wait, doesn't that sound perhaps familiar?

You know when you are getting old when you've lived long enough to experience the times of your youth repeating themselves, especially with such clarity.

When we think of what was the endless quagmire of Vietnam, that spectre, always that dark spectre, that was the Cold War, a cold war that for some of us was a bit warm, it suddenly looks familiar.

I lived in many parts of the world in my life, some achingly impoverished like Africa and Central America, and several virtually rebuilt from scratch after WWII like in Europe, rebuilt in the 20-30 odd years from war's end to when I experienced them and their cultures.

If I've learnt anything in this life, its to stay strong in the face of what life deals, in the face of idiots, the power mongers, the hate-driven, the reactionaries, the blind zealots, and the populists. We're better than they are as long as we never ever give up, never surrender, and remember who are the important in life; family, friends, neighbours, communities.

Take heart. If history is any kind of a teacher, we'll be fine. Be thankful for that.