Ten on Tuesday

Today's list is ten things I want for the holidays, and I'm having a bit of trouble with it. If, as in the movies, you wrote me a blank check and told me I had to use it for ten things I wanted just for myself, I could probably do that: a drum carder, a trip to the Bahamas, twenty pounds of cashmere. But the truth is that I really have enough stuff. In fact I probably have too much: my SIL being a declutterer and a decorator, Grant and Miss B regarded our piles of random accumulation with a somewhat jaundiced eye on their return from Ohio. So my goal for the holidays and going forward will be somehow to have less stuff, to relocate what I don't need. (Honey? Don't even think about it. The stash stays, except of course for charity and gift knitting. And I really will try not to buy much for a while.)

So what do I want for the holidays, or wish for the coming year, that might be within the realm of possibility? Herewith five large-scale, collective-we things, and five small-scale, we-who-live-in-my-house things.

1. Two words: leave Iraq. In as orderly and civilized a fashion as possible, but we don't belong there.
   
2. Universal health care. Yes, Laurie, I know you get what you pay for, I know it's not as simple as all that, and I know that even in countries with "good" universal health care people can wait much longer than they should for the care they need. But there has to be some way at least to improve on what we've got. Maybe it won't happen next year, but my hope is that the new administration can at least get us a lot closer. (Of course this assumes that the financial crisis can be brought under reasonable control, which is another big if.)
   
3. To go with #2, when the Democrats propose a program, I'd like the Republicans to list good reasons why it won't work — this is what an opposition party is for — rather than just screaming "Socialism!" at it. (The more reasons the better. If the program really won't work there's no point in implementing it.)
   
4. Maybe it's too late to do anything about climate change, but we still have to change the energy we use and how we use it, because we'll still run out of oil at some point, and a lot of geologists think it might be kind of soon. Since most renewable energy sources are cleaner than fossil fuels, that will help if it turns out not to be too late.
   
5. It looks like everybody's already on board with doing the economic stimulus we need in the form of infrastructure projects. Sounds like a plan to me.
   
6. Every day... not realistic. Every week I want to go through a pile-o-stuff and get rid of what we don't need.
   
7. I want to do more charity knitting. As already noted, this will have the salutary effect of shrinking the stash a bit.
   
8. Maybe I could even get rid of the Laura Ashley wallpaper I swore would be the first thing to go when we moved in. It's not even that she's so last millenium: I'm just not a Laura Ashley grrl.
   
9. I want to start cooking again, planning meals that accommodate my (now somewhat expanded) list of permitted foods and still work for everyone.
   
10. I want to start exercising, just a little, a few times a week. I don't even care if I lose weight, although that would be nice, as long as I get the blood moving.

Those last five look rather like New Year's resolutions, don't they? I don't suppose there's any harm in getting an early start.