On a positive note …

Whew! We survived 2017 and that’s all I’ll say about that. We’re being positive, right? So Happy New Year to you, to us, to all those we hold dear.

When I was thinking about what I’d write today, I remembered something my mother used to say (and do) every time I moved into a new house or apartment.

“Fransi,” she’d say, “remember to bring a piece of bread, some salt, some sugar and a new broom with you the first time you go in. And make sure you enter with your right foot first.” It wasn’t enough she’d

What’s the big deal?

We’re just days into the New Year and here I am, complaining.  Well, not really complaining.  It’s more like ‘wondering’.  Or making an observation.  Or questioning.  I’m confused, is all.  For the life of me I can’t figure out why we make such a big deal out of New Year’s Eve.  Okay, okay, okay, I get the significance of beginning a new year.  Truly I do.  But why the insistence on wearing silly hats and cranking noisemakers and watching balls drop and drinking ourselves into oblivion?  What’s the point of all that?

Speaking strictly for myself, I’ve never liked New Year’s Eve.  In fact, I kinda loathe it.  Too many people trying way to hard to have a good time.  Way too many people who can’t hold their liquor getting way too drunk.  Drunk to the point of crying, drunk to the point of sharing the most intimate details of their lives with virtual strangers, drunk to the point of making passes at their best friends’ husbands (or vice versa), drunk to the point of passing out or, even worse,

Day 146. Bye Bye

Don’t know about you, but I’m ready.  I’ve seen quite a few of them come and go in my time.  Sometimes I’m kinda sorry when the 31st comes along.  When it’s been a good year; and I wish we could hang on to it, just a bit longer.

But this year.  Ta Ta.  Vamoose.  So long.  Scram.  Ciao.

Not that it’s been awful for me.  It hasn’t.  It’s got nothing to do with ‘my’ world.  I’m talking about the world at large.  The one we all inhabit.  The idealist in me is disappointed.  And frustrated.

I’m ready to say good-bye.

To violence.  Unnecessary bloodshed.  Guns.  Knives.  Grenades.  Bombs.  The threat of nuclear weapons.  Dead bodies.  Young.  Old.  Rich.  Poor.  Lives cut short, for no reason.  In our neighbourhoods.  In nearby cities.