Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life

Reality check: I see today, of the NY Times "most emailed stories", an article about and a recipe for macaroni and cheese occupy the top two positions on the list. M&C, for those unfamiliar with baseline American nutrition, is a simple, cholesterol-laden, common working-class family one-pan dish, something we refer to as "comfort food." Everyone has their "comfort food" a dish they associate with family, security, warmth, simplicity and home. The event of comfort food topping the NYT email list, I think, says something about year-end burnout. I see in it this gulf of human estrangement and need that apparently touches everyone from the shivering Pakistani earthquake survivor to the snug New York east-sider wondering when the next planeload of horror is going to come crashing into any residual sense of security any American might have. Security these days, is a false pretense, wherever you are.

Between nature and our leaders, oh-five was a train wreck from beginning to end. Nature we can't control, she's quite fond of showing us who's in charge. But we've just got to get hold of our world. There are enough resources for everyone to have food and shelter, clean water and education, were it not for the obstruction of politics and market economics. We as a race are failing to provide for the survival of any but the most powerful and the most desperate and they are dismantling the habitability and simple human comfort of most of the "civilized" planet.

It seems impossible, given the nature of nations, for the world to be at peace right now. Spiritual leaders, if they're honest and well-studied will tell you that the only peace is the peace you can find in your being by whatever methods and icons you have chosen for that purpose. Comfort food for the soul, as it were. Given the nature of most religions, though, the direct route to that reservior of internal peace can be made overcomplicated and inaccessible. Of course. That is the way of power.

Oh-five is over, and it's the day before my birthday. I'm thinking about these things because I want a better year for myself, friends, family, you and our world and you have to feel better before you can do better. So today, I put forth an offering of virtual macaroni and cheese, as a metaphor for whatever food for mind, body and soul required to recharge the engine of personal comfort, citizen initiative and confidence that you and I can make a difference, even if we don't agree on what that difference should be.