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Straight
Talk
Mission
2005
Nadia
Kabir Barb
So here
we are on the cusp of yet another New Year and I for one
have not made any New Year's Resolutions. In fact I was
thinking that my resolution for this year would be not to
make any resolutions! Well it seems to me that most people
come up with these sudden declarations one minute before
the clock strikes midnight on the 31st of December and by
February have had amnesia and forgotten everything that
they had so enthusiastically proclaimed. I can say this
with great conviction as I fall well and truly into that
category of people. Interestingly enough this tradition
of making New Year's resolutions also dates back to the
early Babylonians. Nowadays the top five resolutions would
probably include the promise to get fit, go to the gym,
lose weight, quit smoking, spend time with loved ones etc.
But the early Babylonian's most popular resolution was to
return borrowed farm equipment! How many times have you
heard that recently? In fact if you want to make your life
easy - all of you who have borrowed farm equipment, okay,
any equipment or item from your neighbours or friends, please
go and return it now and you will be exempt from having
to thinking up any other resolutions for 2005. Otherwise
you still have a few hours left to come up with something.
I asked
my eight year old son what his New Year's resolution was
and in return received a rather bewildered look. "What
does resolution mean?" was his reply. "Well, It's
a promise you make to yourself", was my enlightening
answer. The look I got this time was a little suspicious
and a whole lot apprehensive, "So does this mean I
have to keep the promise forever?" To be perfectly
honest I had never thought of it in terms of forever. It
makes it even more daunting if you give yourself a time
limit which can go on for decades. I mean can you imagine
if you made a resolution to give up chocolates and then
actually had to stick to it? The thought makes me shudder.
Or if on the spur of the moment you foolishly promised to
take up Shorinji Kempo (a form of martial arts) and then
had to keep that up indefinitely! It is almost a given fact
that most people never really succeed in keeping to their
pledge for the whole year and are not regarded as social
pariahs for not doing so. It would be nice to think that
we were capable of doing something as simple as making a
decision and being able to keep it up for longer than a
couple of months. But alas this is something most of us
need to work at.
I was
just talking to my husband and we started extrapolating
that if one were to begin making all these New Year's resolutions
let's say from the age of thirteen and had a life expectancy
of about eighty, then that would mean finding sixty seven
resolutions to make and fulfil during our life. That sounds
like a lot of promises to be making to oneself. Would we
even be able to come up with that many areas to improve
upon? To be honest if we start thinking up things we could
do for "self improvement" the list would be endless
and no one wants to be confronted with one's own inadequacies
right? I am sure if you asked family and friends they would
be able to supply you with at least double the number of
suggestions so we'll just leave them out of this theorising.
Anyway if we actually did accomplish such a feat, assuming
we managed to find sixty seven different things to improve
upon, then wouldn't that make us almost perfect by the end
of our lifetime? See there is a reason why resolutions were
made to be broken.
In all
seriousness the New Year allows people the opportunity to
maybe make up for past mistakes, renew old promises and
show resolve all at the same time and to gear their lives
towards a better future. In the past the New Year resolutions
were mostly religious undertakings but as time progressed,
the promises made today are mostly secular in nature. And
to many New Year resolutions are made in jest than rather
than with any spiritual intentions!
I was
reading about the fact that traditionally, it was thought
that one could affect the luck they would have throughout
the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day
of the year. As a result, it has become common for people
to celebrate the first few minutes of the New Year with
family and friends. Hence the New Year's Eve Parties or
family gatherings that often last go on into the small hours
of the morning even after the bringing in of the New Year.
It was also believed that the first visitor on New Year's
Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of
the year. Supposedly it was particularly lucky if that visitor
happened to be a tall dark-haired man. Well if that was
the case then I should have good luck all year every year
considering my husband fits the description to a tee!
I have
a feeling that the SWM editor is probably thinking that
my resolution for the coming year should be to hand in my
articles on time and not one minute before the deadline!
So maybe I can start my New Year's resolution by ending
my article here and sending it on time. So I wish you all
a happy and prosperous 2005. And don't forget there is still
a little time left to come up with some resolutions of your
own…
Copyright
(R) thedailystar.net 2004
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