Loose Ends

The New Year is nearly here. Time to make our annual task list of resolutions, of promises to ourselves to do some things better, smarter, or sooner than last year.

For some of us this means we resolve to actually DO these things, as opposed to shoving our list in a drawer, or burying it eight levels deep in computer folders. This Year, we tell ourselves, we will actually fulfill these promises. Really we will.

And for 2010, we all have a lot of work to do.

I plan to finally learn a few words of Spanish. Enough to make myself understood in the vast - and getting vaster - LA economy in which English is not the first language. Or at least enough to know when I'm being kidded (or warned).

I also plan to simplify. Cut loose the extra baggage I've been carting around for decades. Either that, or fulfill another long term goal of appearing on TV - only in an episode of 'Hoarders' rather than CSI.

But my real focus will be on loose ends. You know, those tasks we've left undone, some for so long we barely remember them, but which still cause waves of anxiety and regret when we do.

I figure if I tie up one loose end a month, that would just about do it. Or, if that's too much, I could do one a quarter and I'd be done in three years or so. I could live with that.

Of course, not all loose ends can be tied up neatly in a month, a quarter, or even a year. Some took years in the loosening and will require years to resolve. Unless I resolve to completely forget about them, that is. Which is certainly the easier approach, just ask the Republicans.

Which reminds me of who else needs to focus on loose ends in 2010. That's right, the government. Including the Republicans. Health Care, Energy, Global Warming, the Economy, the Middle East, North Korea, Iran, Al-Qaeda, our military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. Tax Reform. All very loose ends indeed.

So - at the conclusion of this last year of the first decade of the new millennium let's resolve - all of us, including our federal, state, and local representatives, to do the right thing and place a few loose ends on our lists of resolutions for 2010. Let's pledge to carry out some of the garbage we've accumulated from the past. Let's clear out the storage space. Let's fix those squeaking doors and beeping low-battery smoke alarms. Let's end those unending wars.

We will need a little intestinal fortitude and a little luck with this. But it's doable and I for one intend to give it a try. It would be embarrassing, after all, if my resolve (or our government's) to clear up loose ends became just another Loose End.

Good Luck and Happy New Year to Us All ...