Yup, it’s New Year’s Eve and the world is dividing itself into two groups of people: Those who are making resolutions and those who are mocking making resolutions. Well, there might be a third group that I kind of belong to — those who ask why?
Yes, it’s good to reflect on you’re life and decide to make a positive change, but most of us just don’t have the self discipline to carry it through. I can think of about five things I should do, but likely I won’t. Not because it’s a bad idea, just that … well, things happen, priorities change and eventually that wonderful list we make this time of year just gets dropped.
In most years my annual list would look something like this:
- Exercise more.
- Eat better.
- File my taxes on time.
- Finish all those projects I promised.
- Really try to understand why my wife thinks the carpet needs to be vacuumed every week.
It’s a good list but it isn’t happening. It will be raining when I want to walk, there will be a really good sale on cookies at the store, my CPA is always asking for more 1099s, I can’t find the project list I made and really what husband ever understood that … and it just goes on and on.
You just never know what is going to happen. Like today at church. This is the Sunday they choose to do the Christmas pageant. Now before you say Christmas is over, let me remind you that on the Christian calendar, Christmas starts on the 25th and goes for 12 days until January 6th when tradition has it that the wisemen showed up. That Christmas “Season” that starts just after Labor Day is purely a secular American Corporate construct that has nothing to do with the dogma, theology or deep beliefs held by most ardent Christians.
Sadly, even the Christian calendar is wrong, Jesus likely wasn’t born on December 25, but I digress … back to church today.
Today they decided on a variation of the traditional children’s Christmas pageant calling it a “Paper Bag Pageant.” The pastor admitted that we all know the traditional story so why overwork the whole thing. Instead as we entered church, we were offered a bag with a costume and our line for the play. Apparently size was an important consideration for what bag we were offered and I asked for something extra large. I fully expected a Shepard or something. Instead I was offered a bag marked XL and the line inside labeled me as “Mary #1.” Heather was giving the bag for “Mary #2”. Unlike the traditional story we had 3 Joesphs, 3 Marys, two baby Jesus, wisemen and a flock of sheep.
Now I’ve played a lot of parts in Christmas pageants, but I’ve never been asked to play Mary. At the last minute I was told that I didn’t need to tie on the pillow — I’m still trying to decide how I feel about that. I’m not sure if they thought I looked pregnant or realized that Mary had given birth by this time in the story.
Anyway, we put on the costumes and when called went up to say our lines. The children were all dressed as sheep and did a great job of being an unruly flock of sheep to be chased around for dramatic and comic effect. I’d like to say that I was brilliant in my role, but I think Heather might just have out acted me there.
So you just never know what’s going to happen which makes resolutions hard to stick to at times. I mean, I never would have thought that I needed to be ready to play Mary at a moment’s notice and I’m not sure exactly how I’d phrase a New Year’s resolution to be ready to do that.
All I really know is that if I had been a parent of Jesus and had all those sheep running around the place, I wouldn’t have had any kind of carpeting so the whole question of why we vacuum wouldn’t even be a remote thought. It really would have changed what I put on my resolution list.
Andrew's View of the Week 
Happy 8th Day of Christmas and thanks for the entertainment and laughs. Our own pastor managed to weave Marie Kondo and her organizational skills into his take on the Christmas story, but yours was more original. As for the resolutions, I think of them as guidelines instead of goals, so then I have the excuse to behave in the spirit instead of to the letter. Also, I never remember to take a moment at the end of the year to decide “how I did”, probably because by then I can’t remember what my resolutions were in the first place. As they say, lather, rinse, repeat.
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Yes, guidelines. Sometimes I think I should write them down – for historical reference …
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Life has its problems, buy a Dyson and your wife won’t stop vacuuming the carpet!
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I have a Dyson, but somewhere the vacuuming job got assigned to me … 😉
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Clever woman!
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🙂
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I love the idea of the paper bag pageant! I guess if nothing else, it was a reminder to stay open to the possibilities, no matter how odd they might seem at first glance. 🙂 Happy New Year!
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It was fun – you never know what will happen.
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I like how you wrapped the Christmas pageant back to resolutions. Nicely done.
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Thank you!
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Look at it as widening your range for your acting non-career. 🙂 It sounds delightful!
As for resolutions – I am a ‘list-maker’ and ‘goal-driven’ type person. Somewhere along my learning about life, it was mentioned that ‘you can’t achieve goals if you don’t make them’ and it kind of stuck with me. I am uncertain how, but it has more or less become a lifestyle with me – making goals. But ‘achieving’ all the goals- that is another story.
I look at goals (or resolutions, if you will) as something in the grey area of life. I have learned that I typically set goals that are too high and unrealistic, so accomplishing even part of them is viewed (by me!) as a positive thing. They come and go. They change along with life events. They are a starting point.
Maybe vacuum the rug once a week in January and see how it goes. . . It may stick!
Happy New Year to you! 🙂
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I always review my goals for the year, but I have a flexible attitude about making them happen.
and Mondays is house cleaning day in our house. I vacuum each week, even if I don’t understand the why … 🙂
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What a delight to find in my inbox on New Year’s morning! Bless you, Andrew!
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Happy New Year!
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Try not to get typecast as Mary for next year!
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I’ll talk to my agent … 😉
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