Wishlist for 2024

As someone who has spent the last 50+ years fretting about the possibility of the United States slip-sliding into authoritarian white nationalist fascism, I approach 2024 trembling. 

At this point, there's a much greater than zero chance that a certain rancid someone seeking to rain retribution on the heads of his enemies (i.e., anyone who opposes him), exterminate vermin (sound familiar, students of Nazism?), and summarily execute supposed traitors like Mark Milley and Anthony Fauci, will become the president. 

It can happen here, and this may well be the year that it does.

Hate to start the year off with such a feeling of woe, but this year seems existential threat-y to me. So the first item on my wishlist is that Donald Trump is not elected and that some semblance of sanity is restored to the Republican Party. God knows I don't want to see Nikki Haley elected, but I wouldn't be sitting up in my bed at night, hand over my palpitating heart, if she were in the White House.

After that, there's the rest of my macro wishlist: peace in the Mideast; a better way to manage immigration (and better care for those who make it in through the gates); victory over Russia in Ukraine; a few more (energy-efficient) lightbulbs going off in a few more heads about global warming; more housing for the unhoused; more and better opportunities for young people to build good and meaningful lives for themselves; better everything for all the little kiddos out there who deserve peace, good health, good education, good homes, and some fun things to play with, while we're at it.

Then there's my personal wishlist for the year, which starts with good health and happiness for my friends and family.

And because I'm not entirely goody-two shoes other focused, near the top of my wishlist is good health and happiness - both of which I've enjoyed very generous rations of in my life - for me.

And while I'm on the subject of me: 

May the ancient elevator in our ancient building, which I don't even use because I live on the first floor, not keep costing the condo association an arm and a leg.

May we have one good-sized snowstorm, just because snowstorms are pretty to look at, and I like sitting down with a cup of tea and James Joyce's The Dead on a nice snowy day.

May I go on a couple of trips - maybe even to a place I haven't been before. (Last year I did quite a bit of travel. Tucson, Chicago. NYC. Ocean Park, Washington. Ireland (twice). DC. But they were all trips to places I'd been, in some cases many times. This year: bring on something new. Maybe.)

May I finally get the sconces installed in my living room.

May I learn a bit of Spanish, at least to the level of mastery I acquired in junior high.

Some of the items on the list are, of course, completely under my control. (Travel, sconces, Spanish.) Yet I am loath to call going on a trip, getting those sconces put up, and learning enough Spanish to ask someone whether they want shampoo and deodorant when they sign up for a shower at St. Francis House, a New Year's resolution.

I'm just no good at resolutions.

So I'll just leave them as my wishlist items.

Happy New Year to all. 

I really do hope that 2024's going to work out for all of us.