So it’s New Year’s Eve eve, and I’m sure somewhere in the world there’s a country that didn’t have an tyrant in charge of it, cataclysmic weather conditions, an uprising of intolerance and bigotry, or rioting, repression, and regret, but it’s not my country. I’m sticking with the idea that this is an extinction burst, or as one dog training expert put it, “An extinction burst is when the unwanted behavior gets worse before it gets better . . . . The dog is saying this sentence to himself. “Hey, this always worked before. I must not be jumping high enough or biting hard enough.” This is the year the dogs of bigotry and intolerance jumped higher and bit harder, but so far, the courts and the sane members of the government have whacked them on the nose with a rolled-up Constitution.

I do believe that the arc of the universe bends toward justice. And that makes me happy.

What made you happy in 2019?