I’ve never been one for making New Year’s resolutions. I am an inveterate list-maker. Throughout the year I constantly make lists. Since I don’t see myself as being at all disciplined, I am always gobsmacked when I actually complete all the tasks on my latest to-do list. Not that I do always manage that.

This last year was a case in point. I finished most tasks, but farted about with the most important task of all: I didn’t finished revising a book. I meant to, I wanted to, I even made headway with it; but when it came down to it I didn’t finish it. It has assumed the top spot on this year’s first list. It’s like a big blot in my copybook and every time I go back to that page I can see it.

So, there it sits and finish it I must. That’s it. That’s my resolution. I no longer resolve to be a better person. As the HB says, “If people think that you’re nice, they obviously don’t know you.” Ah, it’s comforting to have people around you who know you that well. Does that surprise you? You see, the HB is right. I’m highly critical and I have a sardonic streak. I have never been willing to suffer fools gladly. Oh, but they make such good fodder for my writing; as long as I don’t have to interact with them.

The best thing that I can say about myself is that I try not to indulge in self-deception. On a superficial level, this is manifested by my willingness to look at myself in a 3-way mirror every morning. Silly? No, my friend. If you can look at yourself naked in a 3-way mirror, you are willing to face the worst about yourself. It’s a small step from that to facing any of the bogeys that live beneath the surface.

My decision to not resolve to be a better person is not to say that I think that I’m perfect: far from it. It’s just that I don’t think that I have the capacity to be better than I am. So, I live with that frailty. That’s why I can enjoy sitting in a Greenwich Village café on a rainy day and make rude comments, with my equally sardonic daughter, about the people scurrying about on the sidewalk outside. On the other hand, that’s also why I give as much as I do to Médecins sans Frontières.

There is one other thing that I have been thinking about the past few days. As the U.S. was invading Iraq, I happened to be passing through Paris. At CDG, I went to buy some reading material and I saw the newspaper Le Monde. The headline said very simply, “Le Guerre Perpetual.” They were right. This war will go on as long as there is life on earth if we don’t find a solution. More on that another time.

On that note, I bid you a better year than the last. It was an annus horribulus. I’d like to think that it can only get better, but my senses tell me that we’re in for a bit more of it before we turn that corner; because that corner, where the sun shines, is at the end of the longest block in the universe.

Peace be with you.