New Year’s Eve, 1995, this Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, by Bill Watterson, was published throughout North America. With it, Watterson marked the end of his beloved comic strip about Calvin, a six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, a tiger who was Calvin’s constant companion. Everything Watterson had known had disappeared. And he looked forward to the mysterious next chapter of his life with a sense of excitement and optimism.

As in most great writing, Watterson’s message was both personal and universal. I clipped the cartoon out and stuck it on our fridge, where it has remained ever since. Although twenty-seven years have passed, to the day, and my copy is now faded, food-splattered and wrinkled, Watterson’s two fictional BFFs still inspire me.

I look toward 2023 “like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on”.

I wish everyone a happy brand-new year, full of possibilities … and magic too.