I'm not a New Year's-resolution sort of
guy. For the first few days following the beginning of the new year,
a favorite conversation starter is “What's your New Year's
resolution?” Asking me that question is typically met with a blank
stare.
If you placed a gun to my head, I might
blurt out, “Be more positive,” or “Save more money,” with no
serious intention of doing either.
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| Hanging with pals in Florida. |
I could vow to do a better job keeping
in touch with friends and family, but I already do about as good a
job of that as I can. Yes, there are a few people I haven't seen in a
while whom I would like to see, but there is only so much time I can
take away from home. I'm fairly maxed out on that front. My visits –
particularly to South Florida – are the catalysts for getting
groups of friends together. I'm not sure how much more I could really
do in that area. I'm stretched pretty thin as it is.
I get the whole it's-a-clean-slate,
new-beginning idea, but coming up with a truly significant,
life-altering change in my life – that I would actually follow –
is just too exhausting. It's not that I consider myself perfect by
any stretch of the imagination; however, when I look in the mirror
every day, I'm fairly satisfied with the guy looking back at me. I'm
comfortable with me.
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| This is about as good as it's going to get. No number of New Year's resolutions will make it better. |
Yes, I am old and bald, but some sort
of attitude adjustment can't alter that. Forty years ago my life plan
was to live hard, die young and leave a good-looking corpse. Having
crossed that age-60 threshold, the ship has sailed on the second two,
and I neither have the resources nor the
stay-out-until-three-in-the-morning energy required to fulfill the
first one.
I live alone; so, I can't vow to travel
less and spend more time at home with loved ones. Because I sort of
like living alone, I'm not going to commit to finding someone with
whom I can share my declining years. I like doing what I want when I
want. I'm not at all sure, at this stage in my life, that I'm willing
to share the decision making with someone else.
I could swear less, drink less, eat
less meat and keep a cleaner house, but I'm firm adherent to a
philosophy attributed to Mark Twain: If I can't get to 70 by a
comfortable road, I don't want to go. I can't see any real value in
going Amish now.
So, as I gaze up the road of 2014,
unwinding ahead of me, my intention is to just keep on keeping on.
I'll leave the big resolutions to those who have sufficient time to
still make a meaningful course correction in their lives.
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| I'm pretty damn happy with the status quo. |
Me? I'll be in my recliner with a glass
of W.L. Weller 12-year old, snacking on chips and salsa, texting a
few friends, and numbing my brain with a little escapism television.
Here's to 2014. Cheers!
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