By Robert Dean
Carter County Times
It’s a new year and it’s time to focus on a new you. Instead of promising to lay off the late night McNuggets and Wild Turkey, let’s focus on some practical stuff everyone should adopt into their daily practices to be better humans.
Put your damn cart back. Don’t be that guy. Unless you’re a mother with three screaming kids and 34 bags of groceries, you don’t get a pass. Stop being lazy. I’ll straight up stop my car in the lot and yell at people over this.
Remember to say “please” and “thank you.” Seems like common sense, I know, but while picking up a pizza after Christmas shopping, I watched a guy never get off his phone; Mr. Tucked in Dress Shirt, treating the poor girl at the counter like some serf, never saying please or thank you. I wanted to throw his pizza in the parking lot and let him pick up the slices.
Stop making politics your identity. Look, guy with the Trump flag, Trump shoes, and the FJB sticker on your truck, we get it, you have no other hobbies. It’s 2026, neither team cares about us. We’re pawns. Ask yourself how political choices affect the working class and follow that logic. If it stinks, it stinks. Don’t believe me? Rent is still high. Groceries are still high, and chances are, you’re broke as hell after Christmas. Leaving the house costs $30 and that’s just for lunch, a little gas and a coffee.
Get off your phone. Nothing good is happening there. AI slop is making you dumber, and all those games are rotting your brain.
Read. Nothing on the internet is as good as the newspaper (like you’re holding) a magazine, or a book. The internet is made to keep you mad – not informed.
Go to the movies. Seriously. When is the last time you grabbed a ticket to the theater and snuck in some candy? Or a sub? Whatever. Either way, the movie theater is awesome, plus, you know when you complain about “they never make good movies anymore?” Not going to the movies is a direct result of that, apparently. Don’t ask me, I don’t work for Paramount. Sitting in the comfort of your house is great and all but we need experience and even just getting over to the local movie house to see something interesting is good for you – it’s good for the world because you’re likely to talk about going out and the experience rather than sitting down to a movie only to spend half the time ignoring it while on your phone doing nothing.
Look, be kind and do better than whatever some dumb meme says on Facebook. There are way too many ugly actions in the world happening all the time. You don’t need to feed into that energy. Hold open doors. Compliment someone’s shoes. Be cool. There is no reason to be mean, especially in a world as screwed up as this.
Happy New Year. Put your damn cart back. Read a book. And seriously, go call your mom. She misses you.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
