The longest night of the year is the true New Year’s Eve. The seasons are never-ending — on a human scale, unless we’ve really wrecked the planet — so you can pick any point on the cycle to celebrate, as we all should. Tomorrow, the day will be a little longer as the pendulum starts to swing 47 degrees the other way again. Climatic inertia brings still colder days, just as the hottest days dog the summer solstice, but we see distant light at the end of the tunnel. This is the earth’s silent night, holy night. Tonight, we have hours in our dark nests. Dream of peace and wake to find a world in which peace is more than a dream. mjh