Given
the total turmoil in our current society, there is a certain amount of risk in making
firm resolutions about the future. No matter what my aspirations, it all could
be for nothing if the upcoming cataclysm ends “normal” life as we know it.
Climate catastrophes, power disruption, environmental poisoning, and even Civil
War could break out at any moment.
Despite
this, I think it may be time to make a few resolutions that, if nothing else,
may help to keep me focused in the New Year. Here are the things I hope to
improve about myself in the near future.
Appreciate my
friends and family
Death
can happen to anybody at any time. I don’t mean to be depressing here, but you
never know when someone you love will pass on. I will strive to treat EVERY
interaction with my friends and family as if it was my last. I will treasure
each exchange and try to show respect for everyone’s point of view.
Simplify my life
I
am a hoarder. In the course of my life, I have accumulated a large amount of “stuff.”
Interesting stuff, for the most part, but there is a lot of it, and it tends to
make my life more complicated. Most of what I have is analog information of one
type or another (books, records, tapes, maps, magazines, etc.) and has little
intrinsic value. I hope to sift through this mountain of stuff and do a massive
sorting – determining what things are of no use to anyone and getting rid of
it, finding good homes for some of it, and essentially trying to reduce the
things in my environment.
Travel more
This
will be my first full year in retirement and I hope to spend a good part of it
on the road, visiting friends and family, and taking a lot of photographs. I
have no idea how much longer I will be healthy enough for hiking and long
distance traveling, so I better do it now while I still can.
Be more accurate
My
Facebook friends know that I treat my Timeline as sort of my own National
Geographic Channel. In addition to my own photographs, I often post things of a
historical or geographic nature on a wide variety of subjects. I don’t always
get it right. I do try to make sure the things I write are accurate, but
sometimes have my facts wrong. Fortunately, my “brain trust” of Facebook
friends catches the errors and discretely provide the correct information. I am
hoping to ensure more accuracy in my posts and will do the research necessary
to make sure I am not just spreading “fake news.”
Be more fair
I
cannot deny that I have somewhat firm political and economic opinions. At this point,
most of us do. I have strong liberal and progressive values, and have often
entered into lively exchanges on social media about politics, racism, economics,
the environment and gun violence. I do have a number of conservative friends
and they often respond to my comments with considerable vigor. Despite my
attempt to only argue the facts and never attack anyone personally, I
apparently cross the line at some point. In the last year, I have been accused
of being vicious, hateful, racist, bigoted, ignorant, and retarded. Obviously,
I am not doing a good job of displaying a sense of fairness, and I need to make
sure I am arguing against the content of what people say and not their
character.
Restore Democracy
This
year, we all witnessed the destruction of Democracy in the United States. Based
on Donald Trump’s questionable “victory” last year, Republicans have seized
control of the government, filled it with the biggest swamp monsters they could
find, and totally abandoned all pretenses of participatory democracy. They are
eagerly dismantling government, selling off public assets to the highest
bidder, withdrawing from the World stage and accelerating the flow of wealth
upwards to the .0000000001%.
All
of this is being done while denying ANY involvement of the opposition party.
The United States is now officially a one-party dictatorship – one led by a narcissistic
fat-cat with little grasp of economics, history, science or World affairs.
I
will not stop voicing opposition to this. I intend to advocate, lobby, agitate,
march, and speak out in every way I can about the current crisis we face.
America is too good an idea to let be destroyed by greed.
