Skip to main content

A Resolution for 2007?

I know it's a bit too late to write about this, considering that we are now at least two weeks into the new year of 2007, but I have to write it so people may think about 2008, 2009 and all the years to come. You see, everyone keeps bugging me with this annoying, nonsensical question:

"What are your New Year's Resolutions?"

Granted, now we are in a New Year, a time to start all over again. It's a time to forget all the bad blunders of the past year, move on, and make a resolution to be better. A resolution could be anything, whether it is wanting to be a better father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, friend, wife, husband, etc., or - and I know that this is probably the most popular one - get into better shape. There's also getting a job, working hard, or innovating something creative.

But why make a false promise to yourself? Or better yet, why wait till the end of the year to map out your life when your life is literally running out right in front of your eyes, where every breath you take is a step closer to your last? Why wait till the end of the year when you don't know if your last breath could be any time soon, or that you might not be able to get back on your feet if, God forbid, something bad happens? Why put off till tomorrow or the end of the year what you can do today, starting today, and going on from today?

I know that these thoughts are scary, pessimistic, negative and demeaning, but think about it. Yes, we all find it hard to commit to something "right away", but we have to do it. What's the point of doing it later when you know that you might not be around at that time, or something overtakes you? My main point is: don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today. You start NOW. You make a resolution NOW. You don't want to keep those extra pounds on you for a long time, now, do ya? Shed them off! Why are you gonna let a negative in your life plague you for another 365 days? Turn it into something positive, or just get rid of it.

It's just absurd that people make New Year's Resolutions. We should be making resolutions every single day, not just in New Year's Day. We should continue to strive in becoming better every day, not put it on the side until 11:59 P.M. on the last day of next December. The time to act isn't at that time, because the time to act is NOW. You're living in the HERE and NOW, and it's up to you to make it better. Heck, if you do that, you'll probably need not think about anything but on how you're gonna make out with your wife on New Year's Eve.

Oh, what the heck? I don't even celebrate or think about New Year's Eve. But I hope that what I said comes through as sage advice if not a mad rant based on moral values and Dr. Phil style talk.

Salaam, from
Saracen

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Politics as an "Outflow of Culture": Unmasking Racism in today's Socioeconomic Scene

A common yet grave fallacy is to assume that (the actions of) (part of) the infrastructure of a particular country at a particular time and place is derived from a singular cause, of which a metaphysical nature attributed to said cause would be even more so. That said, attributing (a perception of) (failed) politics as an "outflow" of a country's culture is in my honest opinion a crock of bull. I'm not denying that culture and politics are related: there clearly is a relationship between the two in the broader historical context. However, this reductionist outlook panders to more than your garden variety racism, itself being built on misinterpretations and misunderstandings. Why is that? First of all, consider that politics and culture are mutually exclusive concepts, although their definitions may not appear to be so on the surface. Politics (according to the pseudo-omniscient Wikipedia [1] ) is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The...

Book Review: "The Third Chimpanzee" by Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond is sort of a rock star in the sphere of biogeography (and science in general depending on your perspective). He is more a doom-sayer than a soothe-sayer, a prophet warning of the destruction of society and mankind as a whole. His magnum opus and prophetic text " Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" has received accolades from a variety of sources, the least of which was the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Having read that book myself, I came into his lesser-known essay " The Third Chimpanzee " with the expectation that it would be entertaining and enlightening at the same time. Gladly, I was not disappointed, but a glaring issue exists that I will address later. The first book published by Jared Diamond, " The Third Chimpanzee " explores the progression of human evolution in four parts. In the first, he explores the biological premises of our relationship to two other primate species, the common and pygmy chimpanzees (now c...

What Needs to be Said about the Gaza Massacre

It has been a tumultuous week that has passed. Ever since seeing the soul-crushing news of 61 (SIXTY ONE) Palestinians murdered as they were protesting their rights to be free from the open-air prison of Gaza, I've been sick to my stomach and heartbroken. The blood of my brothers and sisters spilt over the sands of the Gaza Strip ran aplenty as if it were cheap. Men, women, children, journalists, and medical personnel were slaughtered in cold blood with live ammunition from guns fired by Israeli terrorist soldiers hundreds of yards away overlooking the "border". What did the shameful Western media do about it? CNN claims "dozens die at the border". The NYT published multiple sham propaganda attempts disguised as "opinion pieces" blaming the Palestinians for their deaths, even going as far as to dehumanize them and negate their suffering. Even the BBC had the gall to call them "clashes". "Clashes"?! It was a massacre! Murde...