Opinion

At last, reality seems ready to reassert itself.

My Christmas wish is pretty simple: I would like lawmakers to listen to what Hoosiers want. All Hoosiers, not just the loudest slice of their Republican constituents.

Every year about this time I look back at the previous 12 months and express appreciation for the people, places and things that have made their way into my weekly columns.

The same question arises time after time.

It is a Christmas tradition in our family to watch the film version of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” The film is a sentimental window into Christmastime 100 years ago in a different culture, but not so different as to confuse American viewers.

It’s been a little more than three years since Andrew Luck shocked the sports world when he retired as a 29-year-old star seemingly at the top of his game two weeks before the season was to begin.

If I could go back a few decades and change what was a part of the public education offered to me, I exclusively regret what my schools did not teach me. I can’t recall a single thing they taught that I wish I hadn’t learned. Try it yourself. Really try to think about an actual lesson you learned that you wish had not been taught.

Thursday, December 15, was a much-anticipated day at the Indiana Statehouse. It was Revenue Forecast Day, when the General Assembly heard the prediction of how much revenue will be available for state spending during fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The legislature will pass a two-year budget, in the session starting in January, based on these revenue estimates.

I didn’t grow up going to a public library, but we weren’t a reading family anyway so I didn’t know what I was missing. Then when I was nine my dad married a librarian and my life changed.

And now I find myself mid-week of that curious time period between winter holidays: the six days just after Christmas frenzy and just before New Year’s Eve festivities, a time noticeably different from other weeks in the calendar. Norway has a word for this particular week: Romjul. It is considered a period of reflection, a time to spend with friends and family.