2012: No Resolutions

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
(C. S. Lewis)

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.

(Paul Valery)

2012 New Year Resolutions: an opportunity to expand upon all the forgotten resolutions which, only twelve months prior, were so wholeheartedly made in a futile effort to “rebirth” and “improve” oneself from the being that existed only twelve months prior to that, when similar resolutions were cast and also promptly forgotten.

I don’t bother with resolutions any more. It is better to improve upon life one day at a time at a rate of sixty minutes per hour rather than pushing in all stops and hoping to instantaneously terminate all vices. Having the energy to make small improvements and actually setting those improvements into motion is a varied thing, and I really haven’t reached the point where I want to expend the mental energy.

I “want to”. I “need to” but I am “not ready to”. Not yet. It will take a high degree of frustration for me to be set in motion. That isn’t to say that I’m not currently frustrated with my life; the frustration is dampened by depression and so does not reach full boil. This is been the norm for the past four years.

This year is the end of resolutions and thus the end of promises I make to myself and then break. Perhaps, in an unintentionally Zen-like state, I’ve chosen to become empty in order to be filled?

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"