Measuring the planet's revolution around the sun as a year enables Earth's inhabitants to separate time in orderly segments. Even so, what transpired before the last tick of the clock in 2008 cannot be disconnected from the first tock of 2009.

In spite of this, turning the page of a calendar ushers in a sense of renewal, of leaving behind the troubles of the past, of beginning once more with optimism.

For Hawaii and the nation, hope is refreshed by change as represented by a new president whose election leaped racial and societal divides and who broke the traditional mold for political campaigns, skillfully harnessing the Internet and other technology for the interactivity pivotal to his success.

Barack Obama, a child of the islands, will need all of his strengths and those of his advisers to deal with the crippling legacy of his predecessor.

Principal among the distressful state of affairs is the economic meltdown that battered Hawaii in 2008.

The year saw tourism, the islands' mainstay industry, fall off in double-digit percentages. Large employers, like Aloha Airlines, with a 61-year history in Hawaii, succumbed to competitive pressures, shedding thousands of jobs.

The state's largest telephone company and retailers, such as Hilo Hattie, filed for bankruptcy. A host of small businesses like Ebisuya delicatessen and Flamingo Kapiolani, places that enlivened the local food scene, shut down due to poor economic conditions.

Home values took a plunge while foreclosures crept higher despite Hawaii's conservative borrowing customs. Lower tax collections forced the state to cut expenses for the current fiscal year and next, as revenue projections pointed to a $1 billion deficit.

Gasoline prices set records, costing motorists more than $4 a gallon through the spring and summer, rising in tandem with sky-high oil prices that also punched up electricity bills.

The closing days of the year brought Oahu a power blackout, a reminder to residents to be prepared for emergencies. It also emphasized the fragility of an essential system reliant on outside resources and the need to power up at least a fraction of energy production on home turf.

Hawaii has become more active in that effort with a number of initiatives for wind, wave and solar power in the pipeline. However, most of these projects are still a long way away from reality.

The new year should see a more aggressive push for clean energy development tied to economic enterprises, a strategy aligned with Obama's plans for the nation.

Closing the door on a tumultuous 2008 won't be filled with nostalgia. And while most of us would acknowledge that our next orbit around the sun might not be carefree, Americans have always been a resilient and irrepressible lot.