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I type these columns on a laptop covered in stickers. The pilot I dated for a while always gave me stickers from exotic places his job took him. So when that was over, my daughter Grace took it upon herself to replace the stickers, directing me to a website where I could pick out anything I liked.

Now I have Bono, Marilyn Monroe, the Statue of Liberty, a red poppy, a sourdough loaf, the Arkansas River, "Regnat Populus, Y'all," an LGBTQ flag that says "You can be yourself with me," a fancy cappuccino, Winnie the Pooh, a stack of Jane Austen novels, and "Y'all Need Jesus."

And several quotes. One is by my hero Nelson Mandela who said, "A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."

I have been thinking about 2026. Rex Nelson's excellent column last week about what he would like to see in the coming year got me started. I would like to see all those things Rex said. Since he did such a great job covering things on the outside, I decided to think about what I would like to see inside. Inside me. The trouble with that is I have some control over it. Maybe writing about it in a public forum will help me exert that control in a positive way.

I don't usually........

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