Once again, it’s time to make a list of good intentions for the new year. Resolutions. Resolves. Promises meant to be kept. These usually involve weight, since we’re guilt-ridden after the holiday feasting. There is no shortage of diets, diet books and diet experts. The bottom line usually goes right back to that familiar food pyramid and the easiest of all ways to lose weight: walking.
According to pollsters (and there are many of them), popular resolutions include quitting something. Quitting smoking is right up in the top 10, and most of my friends and relatives have accomplished this. And to think when we were teenagers we thought that smoking was such a grown up thing to do!
Quitting drinking is another popular resolution, and this is easy for some seniors who cannot drink because of the combined effect of mixing alcohol with some prescription drugs. I can easily claim success on that promise.
Two of the most common resolutions are to get out of debt and to get organized. Well, pollsters, I’ve been trying to accomplish both of these for most of my life and so far, it’s been a complete failure, especially the getting organized part. If I had another 20 or 25 years to look forward to I might be able to get out of debt and if I did that I could hire one of those new companies who specialize in organizing people.
Another suggested resolution is “Learn something new.” Given my age, I’d rather spend my time enjoying what I already know how to do – sew, cook, read, research history, and write. The holidays are an excuse for me to dig out my tattered recipe books, including one of my mother’s which has all kinds of recipes written along the margins, and spend hours baking. And if I ever got caught up on paperwork, I might invest some time in quilting or embroidering again, something I love to do.
Learning something new is more for someone who may be bored. I can’t say I ever have a boring moment except at business conferences or listening to a replay of football games.
My late parents had a few rules to live by and they’d make excellent resolutions for anyone, especially in these days:
Don’t lie.
Always treat someone like you want to be treated.
Don’t borrow money.
Don’t be wasteful.
Be honest and never cheat.
Respect your elders.
Be polite.
Resolutions like these would be a lot harder to live up to than some of the familiar promises we make, as we start a new year.
Pretty soon, newspapers will be running feature articles on New Year’s resolutions of local folks and celebrities; television will be broadcasting interviews with resolutions as the focus. And within a few weeks, these good intentions will go the way of most good intentions – nowhere.
Maybe we, as seniors, should make some promises to ourselves that we can keep. For example, let someone else shovel snow this year; give to a needy cause, things you haven’t worn in the past year; take time to relax; write names, dates and places on the back of photographs; talk to your grandchildren (or other young people) about what you used to do when you were young and if they don’t have time to listen, write it down; call an old friend you haven’t seen in years, just for a chat; spend more time doing what you enjoy.
I don’t know where I read the following, but it’s my only resolution for the new year and all other years to come: “Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.”
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