It was hard to find anything to cheer me in today’s news. The president is going to war-demonstrating he can make awful blunders just like his predecessors— and the Redskins’ pathetic slide continues. But a small piece in the New York Times Arts section provided a glimmer of hope for our society.

Apparently, ABC canceled a free concert it had scheduled for its “Good Morning America” program by “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert. ABC’s action was based on Mr. Lambert’s earlier behavior on ABC’s American Music Awards. Reportedly (I missed the event, wisely) Lambert sang a song from his new album, and according to the Times, “variously thrust his crotch at dancers of different genders (how many genders are there?), kissed his male keyboardist and extended his middle finger to the camera.” Our standards are so low for performers’ behavior that one can imagine popular stars asking, “What’s wrong with that?” ABC received 1,500 complaints from grouches like me.

Unlike the wide coverage given to the tedious sessions President Obama has held about Afghanistan, the planning for the White House State Dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was conducted in complete secrecy. No leaks whatsoever.

It’s a pity. First of all, the president himself also convened these discussions and held meeting after meeting after meeting. Instead of a War Council, he assembled a Kitchen Cabinet.

According to the dictionary, a dilettante is an admirer or lover of the arts or a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge, a dabbler.

My wife once told me that she wanted to be a dilettante. I always thought it had a pejorative connotation, so I looked it up. She wanted to be a lover of the arts, which is a perfectly fine aspiration.

President Obama personifies the second definition.

As more and more families are forced to navigate these painful economic times, perhaps we should all pause a moment for perspective.

It is hard to be grateful when your stomach is growling. But difficult times are when it is most important to take stock of what we’re grateful for.

There's something about making a conscious decision to take time in your day to savor the things for which you are thankful that helps you navigate stress. I implore you to take a half-hour tonight and make a list of the things for which you are grateful. Don’t just go through the motions. Really savor each act of kindness. You will find in this moment of gratitude an affirmation of life.

Let us stand together in awe of the war-fighting urges of former Vice President Dick Cheney and his use of war for partisan political purposes. Dick Cheney never met a war he didn't like, except those he would have to fight in himself. Cheney likes wars financed by tax cuts for the wealthy, which creates mammoth deficits and tragic deaths and wounds from lack of body armor, Humvees and post-traumatic stress, which helps the wealthy, harms the troops and soars the deficit.

I was horrified to read this morning that it is increasingly commonplace in California to treat children diagnosed with deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, with marijuana. With California’s pot industry pushing into the mainstream, experts say marijuana prescriptions for children are skyrocketing.

Truly, this is horrifying. First, marijuana produces many of the same effects in users — short-term memory problems and inattention — as those associated with ADHD. Get it? Pot actually causes many of the effects that you want a treatment for ADHD to alleviate.

The discussions about the responsibility of high-ranking federal officials in the Defense Department, CIA and Vice President’s Office, and the lawyers who advised them about the legality of torture, seem to be going nowhere. How we define torture and when it is permissible seem more appropriate questions for philosophers than politicians. Reading the lawyers’ analyses about whether throwing someone against a wall or how long it is OK to pour water down someone’s throat makes for some weird jurisprudence. Behind the torture question is the provocative “ticking bomb” rationale.

“Thank you for asking.”

If I am ever able to realize my dream to establish an Insincerity Hall of Fame, that phrase will have a prominent place.

It’s the usually dismissive response from someone who has just been asked, “How ya doin’?” I always want to fire back with “Thank you for answering” or “Thank you for thanking me for asking.”