I don’t mean disrespect, but I hope some future pope will wise up and canonize deceased people who, though not Catholic, magnificently embodied Christ’s example and teachings. What a giant step that would be in acknowledging all of God’s children!

You know, it’s almost like paging through a photo album. Every New Year’s I pull out the last year’s file and rifle back through them, recalling the columns and enjoying again the pleasure I had writing them for you. OK, let me be honest: I wrote them for me, too. It was fun, even if steadily harder work.

Anne and I decided we wanted to get away for Christmas — travel to somewhere fresh and exotic, full of adventure. We chose Milford Center. Only twenty miles away, I know, but far from Fly Creek’s breakneck pace.

Lovers of dogs and cats reading the following will understand at once. Another reaction will come from those who just don’t understand pets: ``Well, you fools! It serves you right!’’

What about the swirling currents that move us through our lives? Sometimes, like a floating leaf, we tumble over shallows and rocks; sometimes we snub briefly against a shoreline. What about those currents? Is some plan spinning itself out, or are we carried on and to the end by sheer chance?

Every Thanksgiving I think of Huw Lewis-Jones of Liverpool, England. He’s a cousin of my late first wife, and he and his wife Catherine, both doctors, are dear friends to Anne and me.

On Halloween I turned into a ghoul, or maybe revealed my Inner Monster. Who knows or cares? It was great fun.

It had already been a busy morning. I’d gone outside with Blue and a plastic bag, resigned to following behind him and collecting a specimen for the vet. (Dogs have physicals, too.) But we’d hardly cleared the screen door when things got exciting.

A lot has likely happened in your last two weeks, but maybe you remember my last column, the one about the shrieking toddler in the highway rest area. About three, she voiced rage at her father by squatting in the middle of the crowded lobby and loosing a shriek that almost set light bulbs popping and ceiling tiles dropping from overhead.