I was really trying to find something upbeat to write about this morning, something to ring in the new year with a jingle of optimism.  But a scan of the news and editorial pages made that tough.

The New York Times is calling for more government spending, a day after reporting that President Obama will ask for a $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, bringing our federal debt to $16.4 trillion.

Mark Steyn points out that the U.S. now owes more money than its entire GDP — and more than any nation has ever owed in history;

Dominic Sandbrook of The Daily Mail predicts that 2012 could be “The most frightening year in living memory”;

Students of the Mayan Calendar predict worse;

Egypt is going Islamist; and

A singer named Katy Perry is about to get bilked out of $30 million in a divorce to a comedian.  There’s nothing funny about that.

But then there’s this.  A Swedish woman found her wedding ring 16 years after misplacing it.  She gave up all hope of finding it years ago — after tearing apart her home, literally, in an attempt to locate the thing — only to be reunited with the ring while pulling carrots (karats) in the back yard. The gold and diamond ring, it turns out, may have been ingested by a sheep, passed into compost, and then engaged by a budding carrot, which raised it back out of the earth. 

That’s the story I’m going to focus on today, a reminder that miracles do happen, especially when things look darkest. I don’t care what anyone says.  To me, 2012 will be the Year of the Carrot.  No matter what.