I am writing this at lunch-time, Friday December 23 in New Zealand. A preposterously dark sky is being lit up by lightning flashes. Thunderclaps rend the air, and it's raining at a rate that would startle even Noah.

It's been that kind of year for SOLO!

The sun came out for SOLOC 4. Galt, did it blaze! Then, thunder and lightning, rain and more rain ... and weather-weary dejection.

I'm not going to look back on the year and pretend that it was not a great one!

Painful, yes ... excruciatingly so. But great.

How so?

The Credo speaks of sincerity, of the rejection of mind-games, of saying what one means and meaning what one says. It speaks to the "rationally exuberant and exuberantly rational." It disdains the reason/passion dichotomy. It is my provisional assessment that the floods have cleansed SOLO of those who embrace such a dichotomy. In particular, the especially pernicious notion that evil substance may be overlooked if the style is "good" (meaning "tempered") has been purged. Vileness can no longer expect to be applauded just because it is expressed politely.

That's important, and it's taken us a while to get to this point. But, if I'm not mistaken, we're here now, and this is a great position from which to begin anew.

Power-plays and attempted character assassinations have come and gone, as have their perpetrators. Those whom one must read "between the lines" have taken their leave. I am not dejected. I exult.

In the midst of it all came messages such as this:

At the risk of sounding toadyish, it's long been my view that you are the only person I can think of who really seems to 'get' Ayn Rand's philosophy 'down to the bone'; i.e. as something to be lived, not merely preached. For this, I salute you.

I am not the only such person, of course, but this message tells me that the Credo lives, for there are those who grasp its import! It tells me SOLO is strong, because there are SOLOists!

I confess I've been "exulting" in an uncharacteristically low-key way. I've been loafing. Haven't written an article, haven't even voice-recorded previous articles as promised.

You lot have been loafing too, using the seasonal insanity as an excuse. For instance, this, from one loafer this morning:

It's just the bloody holidays, Linz. Running around like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs to get everything put together for this weekend. I have about five hours of wrapping to do, a Christmas lights exhibition to go to this evening, working all night on my "day job" and then a Christmas dinner tomorrow and then Saturday is all work no play and then Sunday is a 100 mile drive to see the family for the day and eat ANOTHER Christmas dinner. Jesus Christ...

Now, I ask you—which self-respecting Objectivist would voluntarily undertake such frenzied self-torture just because everyone else is doing it, while forfeiting the exquisite pleasure of contributing content to SOLOPassion?!

Still, I shan't ask it too loudly since I've already confessed to loafing. Tell you what—when Editor Bissell stops loafing and restarts soliciting, let's all respond in a typically SOLO way, as though our lives depended on it. In the meantime, let's loaf on, and enjoy every moment of our "creative drift."

And let's remember that the seasonal insanity has its upside for Objectivists, not confined to the "crass commercialism" that we like so defiantly to applaud. It's an opportunity to pay that overlooked compliment, to show our esteem for those who've earned it, to reward the good for being the good, to savour and express the generosity of spirit that wells up in us.

To all of you who've been true to yourselves and cultivated the best within you, my salute, now and always. Here's to you, and that community of folk like you that is SOLO!

Have a KASS Xmas, NEMs!

Linz