I have notes scribbled on scraps of paper scattered about my work area, in pockets and various other places I will no doubt discover after this goes to print. But I have enough here for a short column to cap off another year in this issue, the last of 2022.
I have a list of things I want to either see or do in the coming year, plus some notes on a couple organizations and the rest just randomness. The list is short, and not, I think, outrageous in content with the rest following:
- It has been some 20 months since I have seen my son in Idaho and my daughter and seven grandchildren in Oklahoma, so that is something I will begin working toward financially (it will take awhile but can be done, hopefully by Summer of 2024).
- I would like to see more civic involvement by the populace; what efforts are made by many here in town to improve the overall living environment are applauded, but more hands and hearts are always welcome. There are a handful of us who, fight it as we may, are getting older and less able to participate so others are needed to step up. You won’t regret it, I promise.
- I hope to see the homeless encampment down at the Salinas River empty of all but who truly want to be there. The same for any others in town who are unsheltered and wanting shelter and in possible need of medical treatment.
- I’d like to see every shotgun, rifle, carbine or handgun that has not been fired in the past three years recycled into whatever. Keep the ones you use regularly and keep those safe from the criminally minded.
- Pay It Forward, Do Unto Others, Put Out Good Karma, Smile, Make a New Acquaintance, Re-new an Old Acquaintance, Make Someone Smile, Make Someone Laugh, Friendly Is Free So Buy Some Today.
- I want to change the photo that accompanies this column to one that actually resembles me. I wore a mustache for a short period and that is when the photo was taken, time for a change.
***
Rather than lament the present orbital situation (I believe I have made my feelings known regarding the dreaded shortness of day and longness of night of Winter). I will instead do what is expected at this end-of-the-year flow of positivity and that is look to the not-so-distant future. Is 75 days, give or take, too long to be able to say:
“Hello, Spring; so fresh and lovely you look.”?
Or too soon afterward to greet the Summer with:
“Oh, how beautiful, and warm, you are!”?
I will even go so far as to greet that season I usually despair of because it heralded the dreaded return to colder days, here it is:
“Greetings, friend Autumn; you are a vision to behold, so colorful!”.
(How’s that? Not a single derogatory remark about how miserably dark and cold the coming days are going to be or how the world is going to be like a cave dungeon for the next, the next, well, the next too darn long. Not a word.).
***
It is expressly part of our lives, at least here in the Good Ol’ USofA and I assume elsewhere on the globe, to celebrate two notable days on the calendar, both having to do with new beginnings. We individually celebrate that day of the year we were born and then collectively celebrate the first day of the new calendar year; I have no doubt there are thousands who celebrate both celebrations on the same day and so get both out of the way in one swipe.
While each connotate another year older, only the on the Eve of January One, December Thirty-One, are we expected to come up with a list, short or long, of “Resolutions.” This is to say that for each of whatever little personal peccadillos are on the list we resolve, not absolve, ourselves to correcting said bugaboos. Uh-huh. Here’s mine: I resolve to never make a list of New Year’s Resolutions. (Heh-heh-heh)
***
As a patron and cheerleader for the Arts, I hope the new year brings greater achievements to those entities that provide entertainment and instruction to both young and old alike. Sol Treasures will see expansion of its programs, and that is good; the dancers of the Monterey County Dance Theatre are already working on their Spring performance of “Sleeping Beauty”; and over at Chalome Peaks Middle School the young dramatists there are beginning to stretch their wings and we should see more performances as time passes. And, the venerable Stage Hands are re-building after a few blows in the past couple years, Covid and the loss of their long-time home stage set them back, but more interest by young performers is growing, so look to this Arts group to continue bringing entertaining shows to some venue somewhere.
As we prepare for another free trip around the Sun on Spaceship Earth, it would do us well to remember that we are all just passing through this life, and it is a short passage when compared to the passage of time since creation of the planet. We are creatures endowed with reason, logic and personal choice; isn’t it reasonable and logical that we choose the path of peace? There are enough people on the planet willing to rant and rage through life with untold evils, so let us counter balance with understanding and empathy.
Take care. Peace.
