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Cheers to a new year and
another chance for us to get it right.
--Oprah
Winfrey
The
celebration of the New Year is the oldest of holidays. It was first
observed in ancient
Babylon
about 4,000 years ago when the most popular New Year’s resolution was to
return borrowed farm equipment. In all of history, the holiday has been
established as a moment of rebirth. Birth brings to mind new beginnings,
but rebirth stands specifically as a symbol of second chances--not a
first chance, but a second. A chance to fix something, or, as
Oprah
says, a chance to “get it right.”
We each make our own
resolutions as to what we want to correct: eating habits, drinking
habits, social habits, work habits. Who makes the resolutions for a
community? Who decides how we all should adjust our behavior so our
community gets its chance to get it right?
Of course, I
have some suggestions:
1.
Renew, reuse, conserve, and recycle. Are we really going to sit
around and continue our wasteful habits while scientists discuss whether
global warming is real? Ice shelves are separating, polar bears are
dwindling--exotic green frog species have already ceased to exist. How
many lights are on in your house right now that are unnecessary? Are you
running around in shorts and bare feet with the thermostat set at 70?
How many recyclable materials did you toss, without even a second
thought, into the trash? We might only get one chance to save our
ecosystem.
2.
Tune out. How much time do you spend each day with the internet,
video game or television? Now, how much time do you spend each day
talking to your spouse or children? How much time do you spend on
community improvement projects, on observing your local government? How
much time do you spend playing with your dog or keeping your house and
yard clean or taking second chances? The time you invest in fictitious
television personalities or endless internet information is time you
aren’t spending on something real, something directly connected to your
life or your community.
3.
Beautify your environment. Hundreds of scientific reports have
shown how a pleasant view can lift the spirits. Beautiful surroundings
can provide a brighter outlook every day of your life. Paint a room.
Clean a mess. Pull a weed. We can do things to brighten our personal
environment, but we can also do things to brighten our community
environment. Plant a flower. Adopt a highway. Pick up that trash you
pass over when you are walking down the street.
4.
Smile and be friendly. Just as beauty can soothe the savage
beast, a tendency to smile can directly affect your attitude for the
day, and how others greet and treat you. A smile, like a yawn, can be
contagious and continuing, passed from one to another to another. Just
as a yawn makes us sleepy, a smile offers comfort, friendship, a lift in
the day. Your community is comprised of neighbors and friends, not
strangers and enemies.
5.
Find something to believe in. If you are going to believe in
second chances, you have to have some kind of faith. Believe in God,
believe in yourself, believe that the sun will continue to rise each
morning. Believe in functional sewer plants and fair trials and honest
officials, in community improvements and healthy homes and natural
environments. Have faith in friendship, family, our ability to make
amends. Have faith that somehow, somewhere, somebody is going to get
it--whatever it is--right. Without faith, there is no hope. Without
hope, there is no opportunity. Without opportunity, we lose the ability
to dream and set goals. Without dreams or goals, we lose the chance to
get it right.
Whatever
personal resolutions you choose, choose one or more of those above--not
for yourself, but for “the greater good,” because of all things,
goodness deserves a second chance.
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