Jason Ashley Wright: Trading in resolutions for wishes
BY JASON ASHLEY WRIGHT World Scene Writer
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
1/01/13 at 5:26 AM
Go to Jason Ashley Wright's BlogOriginal Print Headline: Trading in resolutions for wishes
Like fruitcake, resolutions get a bad rap each holiday season.
I personally have nothing against either one. In fact, I respect both equally. I've even made some of both. (Actually, that's a lie - I've never "made" fruitcake, only eaten it. But just roll with me on this fruitcake-resolution analogy thing for a couple seconds.)
And just like fruitcake is usually enjoyed for a fleeting yuletide, resolutions typically are dished out New Year's Eve and the following day - often with champagne toasts or a bowl of black-eyed peas - then discarded like last week's leftovers.
In lieu of making resolutions, which I have an annual habit of joining tens of millions of fellow Americans in breaking, I've made a realistic New Year's wish list - not-so-lofty goals without the hassle of public commitment.
Pocketful of wishes
Yes, I know the old phrase about "if wishes were ponies, we'd all be riding around a petting zoo" or something stupid. Right? Whatever, wishes don't hold you accountable like resolutions, especially when you make the mistake of mentioning them in public.
With wishes, people can't mock you come Groundhog Day and be all, "Ha! You didn't join a gym like you resolved to do!" or "Hey! Did you see your shadow this morning?" Because people are cruel like that.
Wishes, however, are less taxing on our consciences, which are already struggling to recover from the financial and culinary excesses of Christmas and New Year's.
Still, for self-encouragement's sake, I suggest writing your wishes down as I have here. Feel free to borrow any of mine. Or flat-out do them for me, if you're so inclined.
I wish I would garage-sale all the clothes in my back bedroom and convert it into a dual walk-in closet/exercise room.
I wish I'd find an elliptical trainer on sale somewhere so I could validate calling my new walk-in closet an exercise room.
I wish I'd actually use the elliptical (which I totally would because it's my favorite piece of gym equipment other than the water fountain and blood pressure machine).
I wish I'd finish the first chapter of my novel already so I could start on the second one, as I'm so sick of writing about folks in the first chapter that I'm contemplating killing them off by the second. Then again, 'twas Faulkner said, "kill all your darlings."
I wish I'd stop caring so much about what negative people say to me. More importantly, I wish they'd find something to be happy about other than making others unhappy, be it a puppy or a prescription, maybe even taking up macrame.
Finally, I wish I'd start being happier with what I have now and who I am presently vs. worry about what I could or should be six months or a year from today. In fact, I'll go ahead and say that's my sole resolution for 2013. That and, perhaps, learn how to make fruitcake.
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