Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. Oscar Wilde
I dedicate this column to the memory of my brother Denis and my siblings who used a soap-box to bring in the New Year in the early 1950’s. In melodramatic fashion, though we didn’t know what the word meant at that time, we wept over the year passing and made mock-heroic predictions about the year to come.
I borrow much New Year’s wisdom from internet sources, and I invite the reader to enjoy my quest for wisdom in the quotes I will share, like this new-found favourite: A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.
Perhaps wisdom lies in striving daily for perfection: “I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and moulding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.” Anaïs Nin
I love this one: “People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas.” Author Unknown
Then there are those who spring into the New Year with optimism: An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in; a pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. And Oprah Winfrey says, “Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.”
Philosophers have a field day about the occasion: “Time has no divisions to mark its passage; there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.” Thomas Mann
Some add a deeper thought: “We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.” Ellen Goodman
Gilbert Keith Chesterton said, “The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year; it is that we should have a new soul.” In the original quote Chesterton added “…a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year’s resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.” Now that is worth pondering!
I invite my reader to answer several of the 20 Questions for a New Year’s Eve Reflection (from The Art of Simple.net): What was the single best thing that happened this past year? What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?
And, combining three questions into one: In what ways did you grow emotionally? Spiritually? Physically?
What was the single biggest time waster in your life this past year? What was the best way you used your time this past year? What was the biggest thing you learned this past year?
I will let Martin Luther ring in the New Year with:
Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.
