Brave New Resolution.
I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions. In the year to come I’ll most likely eat what I eat and weigh what I weigh. Just like the year before, and the year before that.
I should drink less, and if a stiff cocktail at the end of the day didn’t work so well to relieve the chronically sore vertebrae in my lower back I probably would. It’s beyond the power of a resolution to alter that equation.
I already visit the health club regularly. The only effect the tradition of New Year’s resolutions has on that is to make the weight training machines more crowded the first week or two of January.
There is, however, one resolution worth making for 2018. That’s to stride into the New Year a braver person.
I’m not talking about the big courage it takes to strap on a superhero cape and stand against the forces of evil, admirable as that might be. I’m talking about smaller everyday sorts of bravery.
The courage to look the future in the eye, and not blink. Even if the future is hard. Even if none of us know what tomorrow is going to bring. Even if the days to come are certain to be different from the familiar comfort of days gone by. Certain to be filled with people who are different from the types of people we grew up with.
This is what occurred to me on a New Year’s Eve spent with my wife, drinking Prosecco, listening to Maurice White, making risotto. My wife was the architect of the risotto. I was assigned the job of stirring. It takes a lot of stirring to make risotto, and wielding the spoon over a hot stove is good duty on a New Year’s Eve where the air temperature outside is twelve below zero.
All that stirring encourages a person to think. I thought about the big themes of the year just completed. A country retreating into itself. Buying guns. Building walls. Banning Muslims. Dividing into political tribes. These are all symptoms of fear, and the worst sorts of political leaders are trading on that fear for their own gain.
The only antidote I can think of for fear is courage.
I’m gong to make a conscious effort to be brave in sufficient measure, so the fear spineless politicians are spreading around the country doesn’t get the better of me. I’m going to trust that the world around me is basically good, and not a threat. Refuse to give into the nonsense being pedaled by the NRA that I need a concealed weapon to feel safe. Listen to the biblical imperatives to welcome the stranger into my land. See the fellow human being under the keffiyeh, or the Make America Great Again hat. Look at the person I pass on the street and smile, instead of pretending to be busy with my phone.
I think this is a good New Year’s resolution. I hope it’s enough.
