Holiday Greetings and Thoughts for the New Year: A Letter from the Editor

Dear readers,

With the Winter Holidays already around us, the year 2022 is coming to a close and the year 2023 is beginning to unfold. In many other turnings of years — both recent ones as well as more distant ones seemingly behind the “wall of history” — this statement would, from an everyday point of view, be nothing extraordinary, indeed rather banal. In our times, however, this observing and unfolding comes highly charged, moving, and profound, entailing a deep sense of intuitive anticipation and overwhelming unpredictability. Without a doubt, any one of us could name more than a handful of examples or reasons for this. From the highest tribunals to everyday occurrences and impressions, the main recognition of our days is that the world is rapidly, intensely undergoing transformation on a scale and at a concentration unseen in this young, already explosive century. Rereading my last letter written in the shadow — or perhaps special light — of the pandemic lockdowns prolonged into 2021, the impression begs itself that we are now living through turbulent moments even more moving than the heavy, impactful months and years that dragged on back then. It is as if we are paddling in the face of another oceanic wave whose immensity is still yet to be revealed, yet whose first currents, foam, and impending crash can already be forcefully felt, as we ourselves feel both battered and refreshed after the last one. We can try to remain upright in the midst of this wave, or attempt to ride it, but either way we will all inevitably find ourselves moved to great depths, heights, and distances…

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