THE YEAR AHEAD - WISHING YOU BETTER THINGS

On Christmas day our Addams-Melman housemates gathered to paint self-portraits. This is what I came up with.

In the spirit of self examination I will share my New Years Resolutions.

• I will continue to criticize politicians who belong to both corporate parties. I won't show any favor to either mainstream party.
• I won't believe hardly anything I read in the mainstream press.
• I won't claim to have been influenced by Abe Lincoln, it's becoming over used lately.
• No more eating between meals...OK, not as much eating between meals. (I am still down 10 pounds from my hunger strike last summer.)
• I will only buy foam board to make anti-war signs from now on because it lasts longer.
• I won't begin the baseball season expecting my beloved (#&*@!) Orioles to win any games.
• I'll try to not say the words "conversion of the military industrial complex" in every conversation I have.
• I will go cross country skiing as often as my sore legs will allow me.
• I won't shop at corporate chain stores/restaurants unless I am drugged, dragged, or forced at gun point except on those occasions where I don't have any other options available to me......
• I won't make excuses for weak or bad behavior.
• I won't buy the new line of kids Army clothes at Sears stores. I will not be a slave to fashion.
• I'll listen to music other than The Kinks - sometimes.
• I won't ever long for Bush-Cheney to kick around anymore.
• I won't use the word Iraq without adding Afghanistan.
• If I have to sit-in a Congressional office and be arrested I won't bail out of jail.
• After I have genuinely reflected on the boundaries of my "personal box" I will summon up the courage to step outside as often as possible.
• I will walk more often.
• I promise not to invite Nancy Pelosi to write a fundraising letter on behalf of the Global Network.
• I will stop expecting the oligarchy to develop a conscience.
• I won't invest the coins in my penny bottle in any hedge funds or ponzi schemes.
• I will continue to refuse to pay thousands of $$$ each year for a $15,000 deductible health insurance policy that does me absolutely no good even if it means I remain one of the 48 million without health care.
• I will (try) to spend less time on the computer and more time reading the old fashioned way.
• I won't criticize any politician on this blog unless they deserve it.
• I will call the New York Yankees the "evil empire" every time I look at the major league baseball standings and see them in first place after spending zillions of dollars buying up the best free agent players this winter.
• I will wean myself from corporate dominated sports, even if it hurts.
• I will ride my bicycle more.
• I will everyday remember that the CIA-Mafia runs the world and that we must have a non-violent revolution.
• I will never, ever expect a savior to get us out from behind the eight-ball.
• I will trust working in collaboration with others is better than powerless isolation.
• I will do as my dentist says and floss more often.
• I will continue to explore and awaken the sleeping artist inside of me, even if it takes forever.
• I won't step on anyone else's spiritual practice.
• I will eat more green veggies and fruit.
• I will not look the other way when I see suffering people in Africa, Palestine, or any where else. Or suffering animals or plants or water or air.
• I will continue to enlarge my sharing heart.
• I will attempt to live one precious moment at a time.

That should be enough for one year's work. Wish me luck please.

And best wishes to you in 2009.

Please enjoy The Kinks singing Better Things.