Resolutions

I'm a guy who sees or witnesses things and somehow store those scenes in my head. From a young age, I've wondered about this concept of "wisdom" and how it is achieved. I've wondered if you can see something and learn something from it. This is where most of the ramblings about philosophy come from in my blog. The two things I know: I'm just making it up as I go along. And also, I could be wrong. But hey, at least I make an effort, right?

With this new year comes the idea of resolutions. I think back to something I witnessed when I was a freshman in high school. I hung out with different groups: the math club and the drama club.

The drama club was a great place because it was the collection point for many misfits or outcasts. You were quick to realize that you all had some thing about you that were A.B.normal (as Young Frankenstein states).

The junior and senior gals let me hang out with them, kinda like a little puppy with a wagging tail. I just learned to keep my mouth shut (and I always got along with older women - hence my wife!)

The one thing I remember was a time where one of the gals, Tracy was with her girlfriends Colleen and Ginger. She was talking about her plans for the next 6 months and the next year after graduation. It wasn't too complex, but I kept thinking, "Well, good for her!" After she left, Colleen and Ginger looked at each other and one of them said, "Well, there she goes. All these great plans. I wonder if she'll even try any of those ideas." And then the both shook their head sadly. I didn't say anything (and that's why they let me hang out with them). These girls had been together for 3 years or more. They had a history that I didn't know anything about. But I had the feeling that this wasn't the first time that Tracy had made grand proclamations about how she was going to turn her life around. And her friends, wisely just listened to her.

But it always struck a chord with me. Do I make these grand gestures or proclamations that I never follow through? Will I be the guy that my friends shake their heads, behind my back, and mutter "Dude sure has a lot of dreams - but no follow through"?

I think that since that small vignette of life played out in front of me, I've been careful to "announce" what I was going to do. Sure, you sometimes say, "Hey, going to Vegas baby!" in some drunken state. But, I've been careful to limit what I say to friends or family because I don't want to come off as a unrealistic dreamer.

I guess that's the phrase I think about: "Unrealistic dreamer"

I'm always thinking, "Can you walk the talk?"

I never ask people what their New Year's resolutions are because I don't want to remember them, and over the year, when they are in fact gaining weight and not losing weight think, "Hypocrite!"

I think resolutions are important, actually. I think that they are positive ways of self-motivating yourself into an action. They are also concrete analysis of what you need to do to improve parts of your life.

I just believe that the best resolutions are those you keep to yourself. After all, if you can't be true to your own self, who can you be true to?

Have a good New Year's everyone.