2012

I don't really do resolutions. They seem like they're a setup for failure. I like the part of the Scout Oath that goes "On my honor, I will do my best ..." it just gets wonky for me when the next words of that are "to do my duty to God and my country" since I'm not really that religious or a chest-beater.

I admit though that I do really love the "On my honor, I will do my best" part. That's all most of us can ask for or be expected of, right? Doing our best?

So, I offer a full alternate version of the Scout Oath for 2012.

On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to my environment and community
And to obey the Golden Rule;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically viable,
mentally awake, and morally respectful of the incredible variation of our species.

Ok, that last bit is clunky. Call it a work in progress.

In brief, I want 2012 to continue the climb that started in 2011. As I said in my last post, the past two years have blown on a lot of levels. I don't have much of a beef with 2011, it was pretty good to me.

+ Keep doing well in school: Knock the bottom out of these quals in the spring, start my dissertation in earnest as of May, continue my dedication to becoming a better teacher
+ Keep refining Jobsite as an organization. This means doing the things we need to do to give us financial strength and long-term viability while not forgetting our commitment to what makes us artistically unique.
+ Get back to a 2011 commitment to try to do new things more often. Summer and I were good about it for a while, but we sorta slipped off.
+ After reaching a goal weight I fought hard for, continue to look for the ways to be more healthy. This is the stickiest wicket as it could turn real easy into "give up meat, stop drinking, quit smoking" and so on. These are the sort of resolutions made and broken year after year that make this ritual a bit meaningless. Committing myself to generally attempting to be more healthy is setting myself up for more success. Smoking is bad, we all know this. If I do not quit, I should continue to cut back. I don't eat that much meat. When I do though, I should try to make sure I know where it came from and try to have some assurance that it was handled the right way. Eat more real stuff, local stuff, less stuff from chains and packages. These may sound like little things, but they're not.
+ Generally try to live day by day to be a better person, friend, husband, son, student, teacher, artist, citizen. This is done moment to moment in tiny choices that ultimately can have huge consequences.

***

Well, shit, I took a break to go grab coffee and got distracted by this story. Now I feel like it stole the thunder of where I was going to go with this. :)

I've got ingredients to go forage for anyway, there's a giant mess o' greens in my future, and a day-party with good friends. Always a good way to start the year.