"For those of us who have seen the Child, however dimly, however incredulously, the Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all."

WH Auden, from "For the Time Being."

I wrote the chorus on the night Michael Gorbachev was set free and returned to Moscow after the attempted "coup" against him. (And, interestingly, years before I ever dreamed I'd actually go to Russia someday...) It was amazing to watch these events on TV, and to realize that Russia would not return to a period of darkness. Yet, even in that moment of hope, TV commentators were saying Gorbachev's power was probably forever gone, and that somebody new would have to emerge as the leader. So, it was a "good news, bad news" night.

And it reminded me that so much of human progress seems to be the same way....a "one step forward, two from behind" phenomenon. We inch forward, we fall back. We fumble our way through the long, dark tunnel of night. And we hope that the light at the end is not a train.