2012: Yes, that is my steel-toed boot in your rear

So long, 2012.
Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out . . . because it will be my metaphorical steel-toed boot you feel crushing your nether regions as you tumble yelping into the mists of Time!
Seriously, a friend remarked today that I have had a "terrible" year. Perspective is all, though.
Yes, had to put the folks, suffering Alzheimer's, into an assisted living facility. Yes, had open-heart surgery and now am a Bionic Bob, thanks to a new aortic heart valve.
Yes, survived rounds of layoffs and shuffling at the newspaper where I work. But there it is: SURVIVED.
Neitzsche famously wrote, "That which doesn't kill me, makes me stronger." That, or a version of it, has been a pop music and rap lyric of late, too.
All right, people perhaps conveniently forget that ol' Frederich ended his life nuts, either from syphilis, or perhaps manic-depressive illness that gave way to full-blown psychosis.
This also is the guy who declared God had died, called himself anti-Christ, proposed the idea of Ubermenchen (i.e. Super Men, an idea appropriated by Hitler with rather cataclysmic results).
Frederich also said this, perhaps in honest introspection: "The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others."
So, OK. I survived. Stronger? Time will tell.
Anxious to make the symbolic leap into a new, hopefully better year? Oh, yes. Happy to be alive, absolutely.
Blessed? Well, that's how I choose to look at it.
And, it is a choice, my friends.
Happy New Year!

Addendum: A hoot of celebration will accompany that boot . . . doctor just called to say I do NOT have lymphoma. Since a swollen lymph node was found two weeks ago, had been waiting on the results of blood and CT scan.  Thanks, Lord.