This year I’m going to be a prude.

No, not a prude as in “easily shocked by matters relating to sex or nudity.” At my age, it takes a little more than that to shock me.

Like how easily circumstances can change, how quickly some things so right can become so very wrong, how past success can create current failure.

This is why I’m going to be a prude, as in prudent. I plan to avoid undesired consequences.

Whenever I’m tempted with ‘too good to be true’, or faced with a risky situation with ‘up-side potential’, I’m going to hum the tune to “Dear Prudence”, the Beatles’ song from their White Album. Apparently, John Lennon wrote it as “a simple plea to a friend to ‘snap out of it.”

So here’s my only New Year’s resolution. Let Prudence snap me out of golden opportunities by stomping on my rose-tinted glasses.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.