I don’t do resolutions. This year I’ll make an exception.

For one thing, they never work. For me or anyone. I remember the time my sister’s big reso lasted 12 minutes. She both made it and broke it with me sitting across the table from her (and still owes me the hundred dollars she bet that she could keep it).

Second, if the goal is to improve some corner of your life, you don’t wait until January 1. You start now, whenever now is.

But for 2024 I’m going to make an exception. And it’s sort of a New Year’s resolution because of the timing of the idea. So here it is.

From this point forward, I’m going to stop putting negative energy into the world.

No more stories about how horrible a pol or billionaire is. No more stories about how we’re all going to hell in a handbasket. No gravedancing when an evil bastard dies, no more calls for the guillotine even if someone deserves it. No more toxicity, no more corrosiveness in my social feeds.

You know what’s happening already. You read the news and you often see things on Facebook or TwiXer before they hit the news. Most of you are pretty smart, and already know the truth of these events, and you have an idea of what I think. Even if you didn’t, when have I ever convinced anyone of anything, anyway?

I may like an item here or there, and I may engage in thoughtful conversation. If you ask my opinion I will almost certainly answer you. But I’ve spent years raging (by all means, go back and read all I wrote in, say, 2009) and if I made a shred of difference I’m not aware of it.

The only sensible course left is to try and fill the world with truth and beauty, and maybe some humor. I can’t win the other way, so…

Some small caveats. If I find myself in possession of knowledge that will be useful to you, and that isn’t getting to you through any other channel, I’ll say something. My sense of humor, which sometimes tends toward the darkish, isn’t going anywhere. And finally, bear with me, because I will surely fail at times. There’s an angry shouting match going on in my head even as I type this, in fact, as six decades of Sam scream about betrayal.

There’s reason for me to be optimistic, though. I’ve been unofficially doing a lot of this for a year or more already, so I have a feel for what I’m up against.

Maybe I even get a Zen book published…

Roads

All roads lead to town, says Coyote.
You’re walking in the wrong direction, says Fox.