I have several resolutions for 2023

Not all of which have to do exclusively with me,

Except, of course, that one touches on the other—

Touches me, touches you – I am giving you my druthers.

These are resolutions I would like to see in 2023.

First, after several hundred million dollars,

And as many evening robot callers,

We ought to quell the political campaigning,

And call a halt to all of the complaining.

I resolve we do not hear from any candidates for a year

This notwithstanding the New Hampshire primary,

Of which the Democrats are now wary.

It could be that they will shunt us down the track

Meaning many candidates will not be back.

Which suits my resolution one to have a quiet campaign year to come.

Along with this, we should address the cable news perversion,

A push or jolt of sorts that leads them toward conversion.

Something with ample base to mix with all the acid.

Resolve to make the talking heads become a bit more placid,

Before the impact of recession converts to more aggression.

But here is something we can do

Read a different newspaper—not just one, but two.

My comfort zone is tight around the collar after holiday indulgences.

This time of year, it’s smart to loosen up with information diligence.

Make a New Year’s resolution to read someone else’s point of view.

Leaving all of that behind

There is the matter of the time

Which this year, as you probably know,

Has standard time set to go.

Grandchildren will wonder at what we called spring forward and fall back.

Other creatures have no idea we change the time ad hoc

They carry on with no regard for the ticking of our clock.

I have always fancied candlelight for dinner.

Why not now for breakfast come next winter?

These days breakfast is not so frantic. I can resolve to make it more romantic.

I must read more books and send more notes by mail

A letter with a stamp succeeds where an email fails.

Which is my one true resolution in the year that is just upon us

To be more flesh and blood than ether waves and pixel dust.

It is a resolution to be worthy of, to be more present with those I love.

And now, Happy New Year to you all

Thank you for reading what I scrawl.

Thank you, Ledger-Transcript team for your exertions.

To print a paper twice a week – in this age – is never certain.

We resolve not to fritter what is real for what is Twitter.

Jarvis Coffin and his wife Marcia owned New Hampshire’s oldest inn, The Hancock Inn, during which time he wrote a popular newsletter for the inn’s mailing list. Retired from innkeeping, he now writes full-time, mostly essays on rural life and fiction. You can reach him at huntspond@icloud.com, and keep up with his other musings on the Monadnock Region at postcard-from-monadnock.ghost.io.

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