Tag Archives: new year’s resolution

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Resolved to make no new year’s resolutions

A new year is about to dawn. Many of us will resolve to do better in the coming year than we’ve done in the year that’s about to fade away forever.

We’ll resolve to eat better, to exercise more, to be kinder, to enjoy life, to quit smoking/chewing/vaping or anything else that harms our body, lose weight, get a better job … sheesh!

I long ago made a new year’s resolution of a different sort. I resolved to make no such resolution.

Over the years I’ve made my share of them. I cannot recall ever fulfilling a single resolution. They all fell short. It’s my fault. I lack the discipline to see a resolution through to completion. Except that by declining to make a resolution to usher in the new year I can guarantee a certain level of success. I know that’s perverse, but it’s the truth.

Don’t misunderstand me. I am light years away from perfect. I am packing too much weight. I don’t get enough sleep each night. I get a bit grouchy at times. Some readers of this blog think I am misguided politically.

I celebrated a landmark birthday the other day. I turned 70 years of age. I find it strange in the extreme to think about my age. Dad didn’t live to see 60; Mom died at 61. They never got old. I’m already there, although I am blessed with good — if not great — health.

Therein lies what might constitute something of a resolution, which is to resolve to keep doing the things that have given me 70 years of good health.

The rest of it should take care of itself … I hope.

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Resolved: No resolutions for 2019, except for maybe one

I hereby resolve to make no New Year’s resolutions as we bid a warm and heartfelt welcome to 2019.

OK, I might make one exception, which I’ll get to in just a moment.

My history with New Year’s resolutions is about as successful as my history of making political predictions, which is to say it stinks. I don’t have the mental or emotional discipline I used to possess; therefore, resolutions are likely to topple over after I make them.

Thus, I don’t even try any longer. Most of the time, that is.

My one exception involves this blog. I won’t declare it officially, which would hold me totally accountable for resolution fidelity. However, I plan to keep pounding away on High Plains Blogger at the president of the United States, Donald John Trump.

I have to qualify it by inserting the “I plan” qualifier. I’m like the politician who says he has “no intention” of seeking another public office. When I hear a pol equivocate like that I hear him or her saying, in effect, that he or she doesn’t “intend” to do something in the moment, but cannot predict what might occur the next day, or even the next 45 minutes. You got that?

So I won’t commit fully to anything regarding this blog. Situations might change dramatically in the next year. Donald Trump might be out of the picture before the end of the next year. Or the probe into alleged collusion might turn out to be a total loser, that special counsel Robert Mueller has come up with nothing at all . . . just as Trump has said. Something tells me, though, that Mueller has come up with some mysterious “something” on the president.

The rest of ’em? Those resolutions about losing weight? Keeping a civil tongue? Showing better manners? No need to commit to any of those other resolutions. Yeah, the weight-loss goal always looms. I’ll deal with it in due course, but I just cannot commit to anything with the promise of staying totally faithful to the commitment.

I’ll wait for the new year the way I’ve done it for the past, oh, many years. I will go to bed early, then awaken on New Year’s Day. The sun will come up. I’ll have breakfast with my wife. We’ll bid “good morning” to Toby the Puppy.

Then I’ll settle in for another year of blogging. I plan to keep my powder dry.