I wish

Here we are, people, that time of year where tradition calls for all of us to start the new year on the right foot by not only making resolutions that most of us won’t stick to, but also to wish for what we want to see for the 365 or so days to come. Meaningless? Yes, but it’s never a bad thing when you wish for good things, so why not just be good and play along, right?

Let me see, peace? Yes, of course, I’m pretty sure this one tops everyone’s list. The many conflicts around the world are truly unnecessary and counterproductive, as always, resulting in nothing but suffering and death of innocent people, all in the name of some ideology someone decided to invent for whatever reason. Think hard on that. Putin, Netanyahu, Xi, Trump, Kim Jong, they all have “reasons” for their actions, but the world would definitely be better off without them, and all who think, and act like them. How do we achieve peace? I offer no solutions because I don’t believe humanity will ever get there. Solutions require sacrifice and unless we are forced to, we never will. Wishing for peace is a big one, encompassing a lot of issues, but we’ll leave it at that. What to wish for… let’s see, maybe a few selfish things like wishing for the heating in my car to miraculously begin functioning again, because the replacement part costs a thousand bucks. I wish for more olives, more pears, more cherries, more oranges, lemons, apples, walnuts and almonds in our trees for the coming year. Warmer winter temps are allowing for insects and fungi to flourish and take their toll. I wish for improvement in people’s mental health, and ready assistance for those who need it. I wish that prices of essential services and goods which soar due to “crises” actually come back down once said “crises” back down, (ha!). I wish, I wish… oh yeah, I wish life as we know it was geared around the comfort of all people, and not profiteering and other forms of greed. This would fix so many issues! I wish rock music would take its proper place in society once again. Rock was once a place where artists would express the mood of the people and where people would find their emotional outlet. Today’s popular music only serves to distract and dispel, lullabying us to sleep on the dance floor. There may be a spot in society for this, but we need rock to take us by the shoulders and shake us awake, just as it always has. I also wish we could get a grip and stop being so falsely oversensitive. Let’s get our sense of humour back and laugh at, (and with), each other. We tend to get sensitive with nonsense and ignore that which we should naturally take offense to. I also wish artificial intelligence was strictly used to resolve natural stupidity. Honestly, if we were really that intelligent, we wouldn’t need to create machines to be it for us.
My last wish is for all our good wishes to come true.

Fiquem bem,

Raul Freitas/MS