By Howard Coop

As Omar Khayam wrote, “The moving finger writes…” Now, 2016 is about over and, having written, the moving finger “moves on.”
In a few hours, the calendar will be turned one last time. Then it will be thrown away.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the English poet, wrote, “…the old year lies a-dying,” and it will soon be gone. Too soon it will become only a memory, a part of history that is relegated to the past.
But how will you remember it, pleasantly or unpleasantly?
In all of the uncertainties of life, and there are many of them, one thing is certain: each individual will remember the old year and the events of it in a different and personal way, for life has a way of coloring how things are seen. Each one of us will remember the same events in a different way, for we do not always see things the same way. What was a large and life-changing event for one individual may have seemed to be a mere and insignificant occurrence that went totally unnoticed by others. Likewise, a terribly tragic event that may have been destructive and devastating for one person may have been looked upon as a tremendously triumphant and life-directing event for someone else.
Point of view is important, for each individual will look back upon the old year and remember the events of it from one’s own personal perspective. 
The old year is about gone, but there is another absolute certainty. Important as it was and as life changing as it may have been, it’s time to forget the good, the bad and the indifferent – what was in the past year – and look with hope and confidence to the future. There is something ahead and at this point, what is ahead is more important than what has been in the past. As Robert Browning, the nineteenth century English poet, wrote, we can believe “The best is yet to be.”