Christmas is over, and 2014 is on the horizon.
Wonder what the year ahead holds?
I suppose people who make new year’s resolutions at least have a plan for the future. I don’t do resolutions because when I did them, I did them badly.
Lose weight, exercise more, garden more. Life always intervenes.
We set newsroom goals each year. You might be surprised at how hard it is to get a bunch of journalists to set goals. It seems to boil down to this: we want to do the best work we can do.
That is an admirable goal.
One thing you might resolve to do in 2014 is help others. It’s easy to do. Every organization and church in our area needs something. People immediately think of giving money, and while I have never known an organization to turn down cash, there are plenty of other ways to help.
Maybe you could deliver Meals on Wheels, or help people find their way around at Mercy Medical Center. Friendly Bookstore can always use a few good volunteers, and the Rogers Historical Museum and Rogers Public Library make good use of volunteers, too.
Our area food pantries are very busy and can always use folks to organize shelves and help with other jobs. The Northwest Arkansas Food Bank can always use volunteers, and are always, always in need of food to pass on to pantries.
We all think about a canned food drive at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but there is nothing wrong with holding one at any point of the year. A group of my friends raised more than $600 and collected several cans of food at our annual Christmas party. Giving is not required to attend, but we feed them well and they are a compassionate lot.
You could ask everyone attending your New Year’s party or bowl-watching party to bring a can of soup or box of mac and cheese.
Every little bit helps.
And helping others knows no age limit. My young friend Samantha — she’s in kindergarten — has for the last couple of years asked friends attending her birthday party to bring gifts for the kids at Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter — and none for her. That’s pretty cool, and I am very proud of her.
One thing you can count on in 2014: It’s an election year. Not a presidential election year, but there will be plenty of other positions up for grabs.
A dyed-in-the-wool, red-white-and-blue American I may be, but I have come to strongly dislike election years. It’s not the work — and believe me, it adds a lot to our load — it is the nonsense too many candidates blather in the attempt to get themselves elected.
And then they take office.
I encourage everyone to vote, but do so wisely. Don’t vote for a candidate because of the letter that follows his or her name. A party affiliation means nothing. Look closely at their stances on items of importance. Not that that always means anything — too many politicians bend with the prevailing breeze.
Before you forward that email purporting to be the true story about whatever event is causing turmoil in the world — check it out. The same thing applies to Facebook posts. I love the hide function on Facebook because I have found people don’t want to hear the truth; they only want to hear their favorite version of it.
One of the best places to check out stories is snopes.com. The folks at Snopes check out urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors and misinformation. They are my go-to guys for anything that seems too good to be true or so cockamamie I don’t see how people can believe, but do.
Check it out if you care about accuracy.
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My friend — and the “queen” of our quilt guild — Kathy Garringer sent this information to the membership: people with a solid group of friends are 50 percent more likely to survive at any given time than those without one, Carlin Flora found while researching her book, “Friendfluence.” Researchers from Brigham Young University calculated that being a loner is an equivalent mortality risk to smoking 15 cigarettes a day — even riskier than being obese or not exercising.
So resolve to make a friend in 2014. You could save a life — or two.
LEEANNA WALKER IS EDITOR OF THE ROGERS MORNING NEWS AND THE SPRINGDALE MORNING NEWS. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER AT WWW.TWITTER.COM/NWALEEANNA