The shapes of things to comeAs this year draws to an end, I marvel at what has happened in the recent past and wonder about what awaits us in the new year. Kayaks have gone from skin on frame to plastic, to fiber glass, to Kevlar, to carbon, to roto mold, to racers, to skates and there is more to soon come off the production line.

Paddles have gone from wood, to fiber glass, to carbon to wing, to adjustable, to costs beyond one's imagination. Progress, more or less.

ACA and BCU are still two separate entities with petty differences and each with hard fast dictums of little use when the hull hits the waves. One can still paddle in shorts and shirt or invest a life time of savings in all sorts of goodies.

At the end of the day, getting out on the water, be it lake, pond or rapids is still what it is all about. The new boats are neat, and I still like rolling around in a skin on frame using a Greenland style stick...both designs being thousands of years old.

Aside from kayaking, we end the year still at war (this is a given in modern civilization...but I digress), political ideologs on both sides are name-calling, natural disasters still conquer modern cities and taxes (stated and hidden, alike) take a chuck of my change.

As usual, network TV is banal, music is louder, lyrics are offensive and some fashions are inexplicable.

Still, I continue to enjoy wonderful friendships, connection to family and service to others. Those are the things I can control. They also happen to be the things most important to me. I need no more and only ask (for myself) the wisdom to do good stuff. I leave the rest for you to fix...if you care to.

Paddle safe...
DS