New Year's Resolutions

As I have mentioned here before, I used to not do the whole New Year's Resolutions thing, largely because it has been so trivialized and self-centered that it was offensive. A few years ago, though, I thought about it and decided to try to use it as a short-range (one year) planning tool to move toward my objectives in life. It has worked splendidly well, so I am keeping at it.

The last couple of years have primarily been dedicated to becoming smarter and more open and honest. I feel as though I have made progresson both of those fronts, but being more honest and open almost inevitably means offending more people. While I accept that as a function of reality, I realize that that old adage "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" has a great deal of truth to it. So one of my major resolutions for 2010 is to be nicer, friendlier, more neighborly. If I truly believe in the beneficial effects of my life philosophy, after all, I have an obligation to find ways to better spread those effects toward creating a better world.

This doesn't mean that I am going to smile and nod and say "uh-huh" when people try to push bullshit on me, but it does mean that I am going to challenge myself to find a better way to fight that bullshit. If I just say "Bullshit," then I put up a wall and may actually prevent that person from considering my point of view.

Yes, I realize that there are unreasonable, dishonest, self-serving, greedy evil people out there (which reminds me, I heard Deepak Chopra on the radio last week and he confirmed my earlier post about him) who do not respond to fact or politeness. It is not those people about whom I am thinking. My target demographic is that huge mass of people who are just ignorant or misinformed about issues, but open to discussion. These "swing voters" are key if we want to create a smarter, more compassionate species of humanity.

While I work toward this resolution, I will continue to build on the idea of being smarter and more open, as I have some momentum there from past resolutions. And I will continue to work on spending more time with my sister (which is why I have moved my computer and a practice amp out of the basement) and on regaining some control of the yard, after ignoring it during my nonprofit years.

I have a few other resolutions for the year, too.

1. Understand gravity. Yes, this one is impossible. To think that I could possibly understand the least understood force in the universe is absurd. But the understanding of gravity is probably the biggest single problem in all of science right now and if it happens in my lifetime, I want to be able to have some understanding of this momentous occasion. Here's a metaphor: If you want to appreciate a Super Bowl game, you need to have as much of an understanding of football as possible.

2. Become twice the musician I was at the end of 2009. Not real hard considering my lack of talent and experience, but ambitious enough to drive me. This is part of my decision to concentrate on music for 2010 and 2011

3. Start preparing for my return to nonprofit work. I feel as though my nonprofit experience and success (I earned a national award in 2005) give me an obligation to contribute to causes and taking two years off to concentrate on music makes me feel a bit guilty. So I am going to use the next two years to prepare myself for a return to the nonprofit sector in 2012 and I want to take some time to reflect on past successes and failures so I can make the most of my future nonprofit endeavors. I'm not sure what field I will work in. Returning to historic preservation is an obvious possibility, but I also would like to do something that works to alleviate the suffering of the innocents in the world. I won't decide that aspect until next year, though. For now, I just want to start preparing myself for the governance aspect of it all.

4. I am embarrassed to say it, but I have made one of the most common and trivial resolutions that nearly everyone seems to do: I am going to get my weight down from 255 to 230 or less this year. I abused the heck out of my body in my teens and twenties and some of those injuries would be less bothersome if I weighed less. This resolution is sort of unfair, since my recent change to a near-vegan diet will undoubtedly result in 15 or 20 pounds without even trying, but that's okay.

So there you have it for 2010: Be nicer, understand gravity, become twice the musician I am now, start preparing to return to nonprofit work, and lose 25 pounds while continuing to work on being smarter and more open, taming the yard, and spending more time with Judy. No problem. I'll pull this blog back up a year from now and see how I did.