Ugh! It’s that end-of-year time when we’re supposed to look back at our foibles and resolve to correct them in the coming year. Of course, next year, the same-old same-old will be back to greet us, those foibles cheerfully awaiting our resolution to correct them.

Maybe we should change it up. Instead of looking back at our foibles, why not look outward at the rest of the world?Why not take our perennially imperfect selves out of the loop, and put the world front and center so we can address the failures it can’t address without us? What would it take to resolve to do one thing, just one thing, that will help to repair what is broken in this world?

If you’ve ever spent New Year’s Eve in Italy, you’ve heard the crash, bang and tinkle as revelers all over town gleefully toss pots, pans and baking bowls from windows. The Italians will repair the damage in short order, and next New Year’s Eve, the breakage will resume.It’s fun, it’s cathartic and, as with all things Italian, it has a deeper meaning.

If the point of New Year’s Eve were to bemoan our individual failures, then it isn’t cookware that we should be throwing out the window. Italians know a thing or two about renaissance, and one of those things is that it isn’t about you. So as you return to normal life this January, why not do as the Romans do at this time of the year? Take a look at our broken world, and see what you can fix out there. As for your own broken self, get over it.

—Susan Rosenstreich