New Year's Resolutions for the world

Things we need more of:

Laughter. No matter how hackneyed the joke.

Good dinners with people you'd normally never eat with.

Sandalwood soap.

Guys who smell good. (Whatever it was you scrubbed with yesterday, keep scrubbing with it. I'm talking to you.)

Acts of kindness undertaken without thought of reward.

Fuzzy sweaters.

Happy dogs to pet.

Purring cats or hedgehogs, take your pick.

Home cooking. (The blackeye peas I made for dinner made people say, "These are just like Gramma used to make!")

Vegetables.

Rain. (I remember sitting on the banks of the St. Lawrence River with a charming Francophone and raving about how much water there was there. "But what would you do with more water?" he asked, proving he'd never lived in a desert.)

Crusty bread.

Decent olives.

Happy endings.

The occasional Cinderella moment.

Smart teenagers.

Scotch.

Cheerful pink-cheeked people like my friend Scott, who looks like the baker he is.


Things we need less, or alternately, fewer of, this year:

War.

Asshole leaders, be they of party, sect, or nation.

Abusing groups because of their color, creed, or orientation.

Industrial farming.

Traffic jams.

Undeserved snark.

Britney Spears, the Lohans, and the Hiltons.

Fast food.

Clear-cutting.

Diamonds.

Mean people.

Impossible handwriting that doesn't go through triplicate copies on orders.

Women who are more focused on the size of their hips than the size of their brains and men who are more focused on the size of their dicks than the size of their hearts.