HERE WE ARE on Jan. 8 and while some of us are actually succeeding in achieving our 2017 New Year’s resolutions (bravo), some of us remain unresolved.
That is we’re still in search of the lost resolution.
On the off chance that you’re still experiencing a paucity of potential self-improvement possibilities, allow me to offer up a few non-traditional ideas before it’s too late:
• I resolve not to act like an idiot.
• I resolve not to point out that other people are acting like idiots, even when they are.
• I resolve to talk less and listen more, on the assumption that I almost never learn anything from listening to myself.
• I resolve not to do a daily internet search on Angelina Jolie.
• I resolve to keep in mind that anyone who speaks too loudly too much probably doesn’t really have much to say.
• I resolve to give up guilt — unless I’m guilty.
• I resolve not to worry too much about the predictions of Nostradamus or the “crocodile boy” that was just discovered in New Hampshire — people are starving.
• I resolve to remember that other people’s lives are not a “democracy,” and thus my opinion is neither solicited nor required.
• I resolve to remember that “retired” is not the same as “dead.”
• I resolve to remember that people, like vegetables, come in all colors, and that the term “race” does not mean that I have to “win.”
• I resolve to stay very clear about the fact that freedom is not just another word for “… nothing left to lose.”
• I resolve to understand that the phrase “Peace on Earth, good will toward men” should also be applied to women.
• I resolve to mind my own business.
• I resolve to remember that one of the reasons I live in this beautiful place is because it’s a beautiful place, so I ought to do what I can to keep it that way.
• I resolve to understand that old people are just young people on fast-forward, and that there, but for the grace of God, go I.
• I resolve to remember that when we finally land on a populated planet, we will be the aliens — everything is relative.
• I resolve to remember that, as soon as I stop making mistakes, I can start criticizing other people for theirs.
• I resolve to remember that being polite — simple human courtesy — has not fallen out of fashion, and …
• … I resolve to exercise simple human courtesy, even in the face of stunning self-centeredness.
• I resolve to teach my children and grandchildren that money is a means to an end — not the end.
• I resolve to remember that bigotry, cruelty and violence can also be “family values,” but not in my family.
• I resolve to remember that, by all accounts, God is pretty tolerant, so perhaps I could be, too.
And because today we’re standing squarely on the brink of an opportunity to change the future, as we do every day …
• … I resolve to be more like the person I’d like to be, and less like the person I’ve been.
Good luck. You won’t need it.
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Mark Harvey is director of Clallam/Jefferson Senior Information &Assistance, which operates through the Olympic Area Agency on Aging. He is also a member of the Community Advocates for Rural Elders partnership. He can be reached at 360-452-3221 (Port Angeles-Sequim), 360-385-2552 (Jefferson County) or 360-374-9496 (West End), or by emailing harvemb@dshs.wa.gov.
