Lori Falce: Real resolutions for 2020

It’s January 2020. Resolution time.

Are you too fat? There are dozens, if not hundreds, of apps, books, programs, subscription-based meal delivery services and trendy diets out there waiting to tell you what you’ve done wrong, what you should look like and how to change — for a price.

Not enough exercise? There’s an app for that, too. And a pricey, easy-to-use gizmo that won’t just remind you to get up and get those calories burned, it promises you will want to get up. (Not really.)

Maybe you need to redo your finances or get your life organized or read more or volunteer more or clean more or give more or just be more, but, whatever it is you need to do that you aren’t doing, January 2020 is the time to focus on it.

This isn’t a new idea. We go through this every year, right after we finish drinking champagne, and eating our pork and sauerkraut while watching college bowl games. We resolve to do less of what’s bad for us, more of what’s good. In short, we resolve to be better people.

It lasts just over two weeks.

Jan. 17 is Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day. Then, we tend to revert to form — at least until swimsuit season threatens.

But 2020 is one of those milestone years, like 2000, when maybe we take a little more stock and see the stakes are a little higher. With the primaries looming and the presidential election down the road in November, we need to think a little bigger than fitting into smaller jeans or going for longer runs.

This year, we need to think less about what we as individuals are doing wrong and more about what we as a group could do better.

We should care less about the size of our bodies and more about everyone’s health. We should care less about whether we have enough money to afford that morning latte and more about whether our country can afford the paths we are following. We should care less about meditation and more about mediation as we face fights on all sides — inside our borders and out.

If we resolve anything, let it be to care less about who to blame and more about who to join to accomplish goals.

And, maybe, we could think of them as solutions rather than resolutions.

Resolutions, after all, are easily broken in the face of a birthday cake or a chance to sleep in on Sunday morning. And once broken, they are hard to mend.

A solution, however, is a key. It’s the last page at the end of the book. The teacher’s copy of the test.

Wouldn’t it be great to resolve to look for answers instead of picking fights?