Every year, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukah/Winter Solstice, we look to the past, and into the future, with wide-eyed optimism that this year we’ll ‘do it.’
It doesn’t even matter what ‘it’ is.
The weeks before and after New Year’s Eve is when I set the course in direction, where I can, with each of the websites I maintain and manage. I ‘clean house’ of some old ideas, and make room for new ones. I decide what we will do get new visitors and fans in the coming year, and I change that copyright notice on the bottom of every page. It’s not quite a resolution, but does get my year off to a fresh start.
New Year’s Resolutions are a promise we make to ourselves to be better men, women, students or friends. Losing weight, earlier to bed and earlier to rise, imbibing a little less food or drink, improving our spiritual outlook, or improving our social circle are some of the most popular choices.
How many of these annual promises do we actually keep? For me, twenty-five years ago, it would have been to do 50 push-ups a day. Fifteen years ago, I promised myself to join a gym. Five years ago, I thought I should check one out. Today, I don’t take the parking space closest to the mall.
The New Year’s Promise to one’s self should always be personal, I think. Spend more time with your kids or grandchildren? That should be on your to-do list 365/24. The personal health resolutions are important, and I suppose that January 1, 2012 is as good a date as any to make that date with a doctor that every man over 50 has to make with his doctor, as healthy as he may have been for the past 15 years.
Spiritually, I see a lot more grey and blue hair in church than I do any other color… perhaps the people lining the pews, with a few more decades on than myself, know something I don’t. Looking closer, didn’t I go to school with a lot of these people? I can think about that after next Thanksgiving. I have more pressing issues at hand.
My 2012 Resolutions
- This year, I’m not going to allow myself any more than a fleeting thought to any of the self-important wisps of reality that seem to encroach my leisure time. I’m looking at you, Kardashian family. I will not buy magazines in which you appear on the cover. I will know it is time to change the channel if I see a commercial for Kim, Khloe, Kendall, Kylie, Kourtney, Kim Senior (there I said it!) or the always-surprised step-dad Bruce Jenner. Should I enter a room where the television show is actually airing, I will, be default, go to resolution number two.
- I will teach something, to someone. To anyone. Via a conversation or feature article I will share some of my knowledge of trivial and not so trivial things. Sure everybody knows that TV’s Munsters lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, but how many know that The Addam’s family lived at 0001 Cemetery Ridge? And how many know The Skipper from Gilligan’s Island’s full name?
I do. I know that and more, and I shall share that knowledge to anyone within the sound of my voice the next time I hear the Kardashian TV theme or background music. - Of course I can’t use all of my resolution powers on an anti-Kardashian Krusade. That would be silly, and reduce the value of Resolution #1. I will try to remember that God gave me two ears and one mouth. My third resolution is to be a more patient man. I will try to remember that ‘my’ time is not really mine at all – it is simply lent to me. Rushing myself into someone else’s time will be a capital crime against my New Year’s Resolution #3.
The rest of my supplemental resolutions will be placed in my ‘bucket list’ if I don’t do them this year. Last year my ‘bucket list’ resolutions included ‘reaching out to an old friend’, ‘smile more’, finally ‘watch Citizen Kane,’ and I ‘refused to get a smart phone,’ and they all paid off.
The little things mean the most, I think.
(My supplemental resolutions – the little things)
4. Actually watch the Godfather movies.
5. Call mom at least once a week.
6. Do something fun with my kids, at least once a month.
7. Keep everybody guessing.
Happy New Year, and May All Your Resolutions Come True!