What is "The Green Light"?

One of my favorite books is F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I'll spare you the synopsis (feel free to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby), but the reference to the green light appears in the hauntingly poetic closing lines:

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year
recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run
faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—So we beat
on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."*

Fitzgerald was driving at the all too human tendency to be stuck in the past, even as we set goals for the future. The financial markets are roiling with turmoil, and what emerges will surely look different than what came before. I will try to keep Fitzgerald's moral at the forefront of my consciousness, and provide you forward thinking. I also encourage you to share your opinions if you think I am chasing the green light, a boat fighting the current of change.

*Please note: reproduced without permission. If I have used the excerpt in an illegal or otherwise unwelcome way, I will bring the content into satisfactory compliance with the copyright owner's wishes.