A 2022 Wish

Frequently in the Vienna winter if it rains at night, the next morning everything is covered with a thin treacherous sheen of ice. It transforms this familiar world into a menacing capricious place. Cars suddenly spin out of control, pedestrians fall down, etcetera. I once saw a dog slide off the sidewalk, into the street and stop right in front of a truck waiting at a red light. The condition is called black ice because the stuff is often invisible which makes it all the more dangerous. Because to all appearances, nothing is different. Until you walk across a patch of it and go suddenly flying.

So in this holiday season, that is my wish for all of us — May there be no black ice in our lives now or in 2022. No nasty unseen patches to trip us up, no unseen trouble or insidious Covid-like surprises, or devilish twists of life’s many various knives, no trolls lying in wait under the bridges we need to cross.

May we all have safe dry roads to get us wherever and more importantly, to get us home again.