New Year's Resolutions
I think I will be really glad to see February roll around. The major holiday for that month is, of course, Valentine's Day. Editorial comments for that one should be pretty easy
I slugged my way through an editorial of thanks at Thanksgiving. I wrote a letter to Santa for about the first time in 50 years for the Christmas edition. And now I am supposed to let everyone know just exactly what I plan to do to fix all my deficiencies during the coming year.
Well, first of all I am going to get batteries at the city building for the smoke alarms we got for Christmas seven or eight years ago. Then I am going to take the smoke alarms out of their boxes, install the batteries, and get those babies mounted on a couple of walls.
I am going to make an appointment with my optometrist for new glasses. I am going to keep the appointment this year.
I will call my mother more often.
I will try to exercise more patience.
Okay, that's enough! I rely on you folks to remind me of my failings. (And you do a most excellent job!) There is no need for me to help you out by listing all the things I think I do incorrectly.
So on to other topics.
Many thanks to the elf who left the five gallon bucket of "droppings" on my front porch! What a nice thing to do! I don't know if they are reindeer droppings or not, but I bet they do the trick in my yard.
Kudos to Linda Britton in Florence for spending Christmas Day at her restaurant preparing and serving Christmas dinner for people in Florence and the surrounding area who would otherwise have been alone on that day! And she didn't charge for it. Talk about the spirit of Christmas. There is a message there for all of us.
This past year has been like many others. We have all moved through our days with our private struggles and triumphs. We attacked the problems we thought were really big and we reveled in the goals we finally reached. We went to work; we took vacations. We were horrified by shark attacks and worried about a sliding economy. Our children graduated or married or bore our grandchildren. Some of us lost loved ones, dealt with terminal illness, accepted that our parents were failing. People moved into and out of our communities. We wrangled over dangling chads, horrendous gas bills, drilling for oil in Alaska, and the tobacco/Microsoft lawsuits. We got angry with one another over lost elections, failed projects, and the idiots in control. We nursed grudges and we were self-absorbed.
On September 11th we were silent.
On September 12th we roared, outraged.
And so this past year also has been unlike any most of us have ever known. As a bona fide Boomer, I know that my parents and grandparents knew a time like this, but I never did. Never would I have wished to know.
Please move through the coming year with care. Say "I love you" and mean it. Find a way to make a difference in your world. May you have a good New Year and may God be with us all.
— SUSAN MARSHALL
