Let’s plan on having nicer year

Looking back at 2018, one would think Mercury had been stuck in retrograde.

The tragic, the scary, the harrowing and the frustrating combined with the outrageous, the silly and the eye-roll worthy. At times it felt like the movies The Day After Tomorrow, The Crazies, The Happening and Fallen — the 1998 Denzel Washington supernatural thriller, not the 2016 romance film — were all trying to play out in real life. Other times it felt we were in a Will Ferrell or Kevin Hart flick. And everything in between. (If you’re like me, you’re still trying to get that Baby Shark Dance song out of your head.)

But the year had some truly feel-good moments that we saw in the newspaper, in online photos and social-media posts. Think Harry and Meghan. Priyanka and Nick. Meghan and Priyanka’s wedding-fashion sense, which was just about as uplifting as their nuptials. Those boys in the cave in Thailand. The fancy hairstylist who gave free cuts to the homeless; the 4-year-old who spent his allowance on feeding them. The generous folk who paid off several Walmart layaways.

Certainly, 2018 was eventful enough to give us plenty of ideas for making our New Year’s resolutions. In case anyone out there is nonetheless struggling with coming up with any — being loath to once again vow simply to lose weight, stop smoking and save money — here are a few suggestions.

■ Let’s resolve to take one or 1,000 deep breaths before acting on our anger.

■ Let’s resolve to check on any friends, relatives or acquaintances whose current behavior may no longer match their previous behavior.

■ Let’s resolve to hold off on becoming engaged after two weeks. To hold off on getting engaged while struggling with mental/ emotional illness, or becoming engaged to someone who’s thus struggling. Healing is needed first. ■ Let’s resolve not only to be careful of sharing compromising digital images with sweeties who may potentially turn into revenge-porn perpetrators … let’s play a little harder-to-get with social media platforms who have become data-“porn” perpetrators. ■ Let’s resolve to not do too much griping about how annoying it is

to drive. There are those who have just won the right to do so. ■ Let’s resolve to think twice about doing or saying anything that can come back and not just haunt us but rob us of our reputation, dignity and freedom in our old age.

■ Let’s resolve to donate to our local or national museums in order to protect and ensure the continued existence of those treasures we like to view while visiting them.

■ Speaking of treasures, let’s resolve to appreciate the living legends who are still walking this earth. (Because, folks, Aretha’s departure was a blow.)

■ And speaking of living legends, let’s resolve to be sure to treat those close to us as though they were.

■ Let’s resolve to stay out of abandoned mines or caves during rainy season, and give some love to those whose job it is to save anybody who does. ■ Let’s resolve to not get caught up in the clickbait. Especially the soft-porn clickbait

that seems to be stuck on the supposedly respectable websites.

■ Let’s resolve to set examples for good behavior rather than always complain about someone else’s clowning.

■ Let’s resolve to not limit our activism to marches and protests, but rather expand it to world betterment through positive reinforcement.

■ Let’s resolve to lend a helping hand to those hit by misfortune in general. Misfortune has become a lot less of a respecter of people these days.

■ Let’s resolve not to live in fear, no matter how fearsome things may be, and no matter how grim the headlines are.

■ Let’s resolve to give ourselves permission to exhale, no matter how stifling things may seem.

■ Let’s resolve to find something to laugh at and make sure we have someone to laugh with. Laughter is still good medicine.

■ And, if we’re the praying type, let’s resolve to pray without ceasing.