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There’s a classic scene in the classic (depending on which way your thumb points) movie “The Jerk,” where Steve Martin’s title character is leaving the house he shared with Bernadette Peters, stopping to take a few items with him as he goes.

“I don’t need this stuff, and I don’t need you,” he says. “I don’t need anything. … Except this.”

And, with that, he picks up an ashtray. Then a paddle game and the remote control … “and this lamp.” He adds some matches, a magazine, a chair and (momentarily) the dog to his “needs” before finally shuffling out the door.

End scene.

Life in the Rogue Valley, however, is not a movie and it’s not a scene that’s ending but a year. That doesn’t mean, however, that we don’t have a list of needs that would serve all of us well as we head out into the scary unknown that is 2024.

We would, for instance, like some rain.

We’re tired of hearing or surfing for forecasts that assure us that there’s a 30% … 56% … 80% of rain — only to watch the skies the next days as what appear to be threatening clouds dispense a mere drizzle.

Rain, of course, well might bring with it snow to the high elevations. This is winter, after all, so snow not only would be beneficial to those wanting to take advantage of sporting opportunities at the Mt. Ashland Ski Area, but would build a snowpack that will have environmental advantages down the road.

We need the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to rebound from a painful stretch of seasons that not only saw attendance impacted by the pandemic and wildfire seasons, but also a change of leadership as the mission of the festival itself spurred controversy.

The valley as a whole is better served by a healthy, magnetic OSF — drawing theater fans, tourists, and their dollars into the economy for Ashland and surrounding communities as well.

And while we’re on the subject of the arts, we need 2024 to be the year that the decade-plus renovation of the Holly Theatre in downtown Medford is completed, adding another jewel of an attraction for touring artists to perform in for appreciative audiences.

Too many folks have worked for (far) too long to bring the Holly back to life, so we need them to realize the dream their labors have strived to provide.

We need the plethora of road construction projects across Jackson County to inch toward completion so that we once again can drive to and fro without jostling metal plates in the streets.

And, if not all the ongoing work can get done over the next 12 months, at least finish the one in our neighborhood … m’kay, thx.

We need (and there’s no doubt that this is a big, big ask) for our political discussions and debates to be held with common courtesy and simple respect for those who hold opposing views.

It is going to be a long, slow march to November — with the county perhaps voting on fundamental changes to the Board of Commissioners, the state likely still at loggerheads over the fate of legislators who walked out of last year’s session, and the nation staring down the barrel of the presidential race.

There’s so much more, of course, we’ll realize we need in the year ahead and, no doubt, will think of those as we shuffle out and close the door of 2023 behind us. But for now that seems like enough.

Some rain. Some snow. A successful theater season. A new showplace for folks to enjoy. Fixed roadways. A stress-free election year.

That’s all we need … and maybe a pony.