It is that time of year, dear readers, when I look back over the past twelve months, assess progress (or lack thereof) against my goals, and think ahead for 2019. Careful readers know that for several years I have worked with a set of life rules (rather than annual resolutions) for living the next third of my life. This review is just one small part of an exercise to have an honest conversation with myself, so I’ll be able to have real conversations with the larger world. We don’t do enough looking at our uncertainties and vulnerabilities, sometimes choosing as an alternative getting angry at others—which hinders real understanding. Steve Almond, in the book Bad Stories, asserts that’s true because we take our grievances seriously but not our vulnerabilities. In the 2017 essay “Facing the Furies” (found in the collection Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises and Essays), Rebecca Solnit frames it this way:
“. . . more often, lashing out is a way to avoid looking inward. A 2001 study by Jennifer Lerner and Dacher Keltner found that feeling angry made people as optimistic about the outcome of a situation as feeling happy. In other words, anger may make people miserable, but is also makes them more confident and crowds out other, more introspective miseries: pain, fear, guilt, uncertainty, vulnerability. We’d rather be mad than sad.”
2018 was another strange year in America, where anger and grievances (real and perceived) took center-stage in too many instances. You know it is a strange year when Dave Barry can’t make-up fake year-in-review anecdotes that are any funnier, scarier, and/or weirder than real life. But worse than strange, the year brought actions that lead many to question whether we’ve completely lost our way as a country. I have to go with Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., who recently wrote “This was a godawful year . . . and that leaves me full of hope.”
“. . .hope, one hopes, will breed new activism and involvement, will help people who may not have considered politics before to realize that they have the ability and the responsibility to create government that looks like all of us and reflects the majority’s values. Maybe this, in turn, will breed more waves of youth, femininity and color, as more of us decide to take America at its word about forming that more perfect union.”
While 2018 at home and work was a time of tremendous transition, I also head into 2019 with hope. Hope for the people I love and for the causes and country that are important to me. Hope that I will continue to understand more about what brought me to where I am today and where I want to go in the future. Because, of course, hope demands things that despair does not.
The Browns – looking forward to 2019! (photo credit: John Thorne)
So, how did I fare on my eight life rules I stare at every morning on my computer wallpaper? Here is a short summation.
1. Be Grateful. Be Thankful. Be Compassionate. Every Day. Several years ago I made it a habit to say thank you to one person each day, and that simple habit has made me richer in spirit. In 2018 I kept up that habit and made progress in being more intentional about gratefulness, thankfulness, and compassion. Being grateful, thankful, and compassionate is, to me, about equality. If we are honest with ourselves, we realize that we are all in this life together.
2. Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life. Last year I wrote that I was going to keep the cartoon in mind where the doctor asks his middle-aged male patient, “Which is more inconvenient for you: 1 hour a day of exercise or 24 hours a day of dead?” In 2018 I built a daily ritual of long-distance walking into my mornings which has been very satisfying. But I have to focus on Rule #5 for this to really have an effect. My health has to become more of a priority in 2019. Period.
3. Listen more than you talk. This is a tough one to measure, as few people will give you honest feedback (and few people have the same standard of what is too much talking). So I’ll just repeat what I wrote last year: “It is always a challenge when I find myself in a place of some authority (either at work or home) not to grab the bully pulpit. While David Isay, the founder of Story Corps, says listening is hard, he also notes that listening is an act of love…an act that one never regrets.” I do know of a number of instances this past year when I really listened, and for that I am grateful.
4. Spend less than you make. 2018 was (yet) another year when I didn’t buy any new guitars! Seriously, I think I did well in this area, although when I do spend (e.g., good restaurants, good wine) I tend to treat myself and others well. I continue to adjust some of my expectations in order to live with much less regular income in the not-too-distant future. I’m also thinking more about what to give away.
5. Quit eating crap! Eat less of everything else. Well, I failed here. Bigly. When I go to “My Fitness Pal” and look at my weight trend line for the year, I had a very good first quarter, and then saw it slowly but relentlessly rise over the last three quarters. Several years ago I successfully gave up drinking sodas (I had a several-Diet Cokes-a-day-habit), and now I have to get serious about some other things to give up completely. See Rule #2 above.
Play more music
6. Play music. I continue to believe that the world is a better place when I play music. My music is better when I play with others. However, when I look at my tracking charts for 2018, I only pulled out my guitars 2-3 days/week. While I may not make it to every day in 2019, I’d like to open those cases and hear those strings sing at least five days a week.
7. Connect and commit. Over the years since I set these rules, we made progress as a family in gathering people together on a regular basis. While that slipped some in 2017, I was able to get together more with colleagues from work in 2018. Next year, I want to add more friends outside work to this equation. I’m going to push myself not just to think of getting together for dinners, but focus on talks over coffee and other less demanding yet ultimately satisfying connections. I’m going to take some of my own recent advice when I find myself not knowing how to break the ice. I’ll “simply walk up and say, ‘Tell me about yourself,’ (a.k.a. the only icebreaker you’ll ever need.)”
8. Don’t be a Grumpy Old Man. Enjoy life! This is not a concern on a daily basis, but more of a reminder that it can be easier to lose the joy of life as one moves through the years. I’ve certainly seen my elders who have handled this coming period of life with grace and happiness, and others who feel entitled, bitter, and—yes—grumpy. During the winter months, I work very hard not to let my SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) symptoms show through to others. I also spent time this past year thinking about how much I still had to contribute in a range of life’s activities. Others helped me remember—as Madeleine L’Engle has written—that “you are every age you’ve ever been.” Living through what you know and who you have been from the years of life is a way to understand current circumstances and embrace new possibilities. That’s my goal in 2019 and beyond.
So there you have it. 2019? Bring it on!
More to come…
DJB
Filed under: Family, Random DJB Thoughts | Tagged: Dave Barry, Leonard Pitts Jr., New Year resolutions, Rebecca Solnit, Steve Almond, Year in Review | 1 Comment »
