I participated last Sunday in a thing called the "Dean Martin Memorial Stop Misery Outreach Action." This is a public happening that goes back some 10 years in Japan, and involves distributing one hundred martinis -- shaken on the spot, with uncommonly good gin and vermouth, garnished with pimento-stuffed Spanish olives, and served in crystal cocktail glasses. The nearly surreal event occurs on the day the famous comedian and lounge singer died, Christmas, and manifested itself this year in the middle of a homeless encampment in Chuo Park, across from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Accompanying the martinis was Dean Martin's music, merriment and crapulence, along with warm bear hugs and wide toothless smiles.

The next morning I awoke to news stories marking the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and my mind drifted back to an art exhibition held last October to commemorate the disaster in the southern Thai province of Phuket. Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara's contribution to the show was one of his cartoonish plastic dog sculptures, and I recalled thinking, when I read Nara's comments at the time -- "I only hope that someone can feel rekindled or relieved to see my dog" -- that he had trivialized the suffering the tsunami had wreaked.

Maybe I was wrong about Nara. Maybe it's about all we can do to try to make people smile for a moment, and maybe that moment matters more than we imagine. I hope that you can be happy in the here and now, and you can then make someone else smile for a moment. Maybe that spirit will spread, and maybe this coming year will be better than the last.