New Year--2008

Of course there are many things I would like to accomplish this year including save more money, lose some weight, write a book, be a better father, be a better husband, practice my horn more, exercise more, do a better job as an administrator, get more organized, read my Bible more, read more books, smile more, be a better friend, follow through with my ideas, accomplish more, blog more, eat right, drink more water, and be a better deacon.

Actually the list could and probably should be infinite with the things that need improving. But instead of making these things resolutions, I have decided make a resolution not to resolve anything. To resolve is make a determined decision with a conclusive goal. While there is nothing wrong with doing so, it seems to me that the antithesis of a resolution is indecision.

When the opposite of a New Year's resolution is confusion, indirection, doubt, hesitancy, and dubiety, then one realizes that in fact, every day is a battle between a resolution and a non-resolution, for no one desires confusion and indecision. A resolution is a sort of strange personal pact made with yourself to help you improve your appearance, your health, your character, or perhaps your behavior. A kind of self-accountability, a commitment to a worthwhile cause or project, a determination to master a particular goal. So in this respect, resolutions should be a normal part of our everyday life.

We resolve to wake up, pray, exercise, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush our teeth, help our family, go to work, accomplish goals, and the list goes on and on. To have no resolutions is to do nothing. Therefore, if I truly resolve to not resolve anything then I must be resolving not to solve anything and without solving anything, I must be resolving to be confused and not make any decisions, which means that I live in a continual state of non-decision or a total lack of resolution, a type of black hole with no beginning and no end--an entirely impossible situation. But fortunately and ironically, to resolve not to resolve is to make a resolution. So in the end, I do indeed make a resolution, which, in truth, is how we live our lives everyday. We solve problems--some mundane, some major, some later, some immediately. I now do make a resolution and that is to avoid writing about New Year's resolutions ever again.