New Year’s resolutions, 2019
I didn’t write one of these posts last year and I missed it.
There are many types of New Year’s resolution. I don’t have resolutions in all categories, but here are some of the ones I do have.
RESOLVE TO LEARN A NEW SKILL. I have a book called Drawing a Tree that has been on my shelf for a year already. This year I want to get it out, practice with it and learn how to draw a tree.
RESOLVE TO CREATE LESS WASTE. I have got to start using the cloth bags I always forget to bring to the grocery store. No more plastic bags 2019.
THE RESOLUTION RELATING TO MY PHONE. It is obvious to anyone who looks around that social media is a source of anxiety and guilt and shame for a lot of people. This has been me in the past, but it isn’t so much now. I have increased the share of my life that is not online, a situation I like and recommend. And I use online to share work I am proud of, occasional photos of my kid, to make jokes and ask questions and offer little points here and there. I use Twitter the most, and while I could certainly use it less, it is still somewhat useful to my work and I still enjoy it and the people I know on there. I look at Instagram sometimes, not every day, and I enjoy people’s photographs when I am there. I don’t scroll Facebook much, but I do use it for its single unambiguously good function, which is to tell people happy birthday and way to go. So my social media resolution is modest: It is to stop looking at Twitter in bed. I resolve to go back to doing the NYT mini crossword when I first wake up, and then go make the coffee, and then whatever.
THE RESOLUTION RELATING TO MY BODY. I have a weight loss goal and some fitness goals, like everyone does I suppose. Also I had high blood pressure as of October, so one of my jobs now is to not have high blood pressure. That’s not a resolution, though. That is just a job. I’m not sure any of my goals in this category are resolutions, really.
THE RESOLUTION RELATING TO MY CULTURAL LIFE. Read poetry. Poetry is good for you and a pleasure but it’s easy, for me at least, to let it drop out of my diet if I don’t remind myself. I’ve got a list, and I’m starting this week.
THE RESOLUTION RELATING TO MY SOCIAL LIFE. Since I want to be mostly off Facebook I should make new efforts to connect with people and I have one in mind: letters. I am talking about emails, postcards and cards and written messages, sent to friends and family just to communicate. This is a challenging one but I do want to try it. I will know if I have succeeded.
THE MINDFULNESS RESOLUTION. A big one. I think about my job and here is what I think, beneath and among all the other things I think: that it is an incredible privilege to make things and put them out into the world so that some people can read or listen to them, and I love doing it. It is a privilege to work with the journalists I work with and to help them develop ideas and shape stories. I feel grateful to the audience who cares about and gives attention and sometimes money to read and listen to what we make. So this is the resolution: Approach the work with gratitude and feel and appreciate the intrinsic value of every story.