I just wrote an entire post of my 10 resolutions for 2022 and for some odd reason, it did not get saved when I scrolled away to ask a question to the WordPress genies, and disappeared off of my site before I could publish it, JUST DISAPEARED like I wish the damn pandemic would disappear. And wouldn’t you know the site helper people are taking the day off for the New Year’s Eve. And you want me to recreate the list? Yeah, I don’t think so. And it was probably the most entertaining, fabulous post I have ever written and was entirely likely to be the biggest viral post in the history of the internet (not really, just trying to laugh this off, because right now I’d like to run around the neighborhood shrieking at the very top of my lungs, which would put me on the Brookline Tab’s Police Blotter, where some of the funniest shit I’ve ever read is written).

Instead, I’ll say this:

When I brushed my teeth, I realized I had the answer to everything right on my chest (no lewd comments, please). “Be a nice human.” is the best thing I can say in this moment. Be nicer to the people you like and the people you don’t. Be better to yourself. Be more loving, kind and patient. Give more, eat less junky food, move your body every single day until you sweat, help others, spend more time with your dog or any other animals you love (they are a secret weapon in helping us be our best selves). Help the planet, stop watching too much news, sit yourself down and meditate (only been trying to make this a habit since 1993…..), laugh as much as your lungs will allow, stop with so much social media, and focus on what you have to be grateful for– those minuscule things you can barely see unless you look closely, those big things that are so obvious you might overlook them.

Yeah, that’s it, that’s my new year’s message. Even though this pandemic is testing our last nerve, changing our lives in vast ways, we can still be nice. We can still stick our middle fingers up at these fucking variants by just being nice to one another. Happiness, adventure, love, peace and potato chips to every single one of you. C’mon, ’22, I’m ready for you, and I’m going to fucking slay you with niceness.

Jeesh there is like, a cornucopia of shit things happening on the planet right now (is there always and I am just more attuned to them during Covid–yes and no, but I do think it’s hideous on many levels right now). If you allow yourself to pay really close attention to all the things going wrong–this life-altering pandemic that keeps slogging along causing trouble wherever it goes, politics (don’t EVEN get me started), daylight savings time (dark at 4:30), climate change, which is doing us in a little at a time, supply chain issues, parents who tried to escape punishment, leaving their mentally unwell child in the worst predicament in his life, food insecurity, refugee relocation–I could keep going on, somebody stop me…..

But, the secret trick I’ve learned is that I am the one to decide whether to ingest and perpetually think about these things all the time. I am in charge of whether I allow myself down the dark and dreary path of global glop in an endless loop. Yes, I try to soothe my worried mind with gratitude–just counting the multiple things I have to be uber thankful for, but lately I have begun to see that I just have to do more than that, I have to actually allow the self-preserving act of paying attention to those things, no matter how silly, shallow or inconsequential that make me feel happiness.

I am a realist. I have never been able to ignore the bad seeds, the horror shows, the misery that humans so often experience, but I have learned, especially in the last few years that joy is needed, in fact, it’s downright fucking necessary. Without the moments that make your mouth turn up, a guffaw fly out of your face, a feeling that can well up in your chest that is part peace, part contentment, being alive doesn’t much matter.

So, gratitude for not always paying such close attention to every problem the world experiences, no matter how awful. Here’s to noticing all the small, beautiful and remarkable, making plans for the things that bring us unadulterated cheer, letting the white twinkly lights of December set our hearts on fiery exuberant fire.