Happy New Year!
Well, it's 1/1/10 today. This has me wondering: how the heck did that happen? Back in Ms. Grouchy's fifth grade class at Eugene Field School (my home town's public schools were often named after poets) we had to write an essay on what we'd be doing in the year 2000. I realized I'd turn 41 that year and wondered if I'd ever be that old- that was 30 years in the future and seemed impossibly far off. I went down to the Chicago area to see my Mom for Christmas and on my way out of town to come back to Minnesota I stopped for gas at a place I worked in high school. It's now owned by Chuck, with whom I went to grade school. I've known him for 45 years and hadn't seen him in probably 20 years and surprised the heck out of him when I introduce myself (he'd never seen me with a beard, for one thing). We had about a half an hour's chat, which only lets you gloss over the highlights, and was struck by the obviously honest man he has become- a guy who inspires trust and with whom you'd be glad to do business. That got me thinking about the past turning into the present which will again become the past, turning into the present.
Now it's 2010 and I am discovering the some of the truth of Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game" (I'll let you find those lyrics yourself if you don't already know the song). I've been married 15 years, have known my most of friends for over 30 years and have some friends I have known for almost 40 years. The children of my friends and relatives are growing up, graduating college, getting married and my circle of friends has its first grandchild. I've been in my career for nearly 30 years and in my current job for almost 20. My beard is grey, my hair is thinning, little health problems are starting to pop up. In 15 years I'll be 65 and looking at retirement as a "soon" rather than "far off" thing (well, hopefully, anyway. Or maybe retirement will still be "far off" then).
New Year's Day is traditionally a time to think about the future rather than the past, even though the future is always built upon the foundations provided by the past. Turning over the calendar to a new year is an opportunity to decide to try something different in hopes of have better outcomes. This can be done any time, of course, but there's something symbolic about a fresh new year. My main functional resolution is to go to bed earlier and get up earlier so I can be more productive with less stress. The personal, life-enhancing resolutions are to be nicer to my wife and to balance work and life better than I have the past two years. I've made a lot more money but the cost has been a lot more stress, an ongoing sense of exhaustion and increased crabbiness. I want to ride my bike more and waste less time on the Internet (I waste a lot of time on the Internet). And finally to do more things with friends this year. We're not getting any younger.
Now it's 2010 and I am discovering the some of the truth of Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game" (I'll let you find those lyrics yourself if you don't already know the song). I've been married 15 years, have known my most of friends for over 30 years and have some friends I have known for almost 40 years. The children of my friends and relatives are growing up, graduating college, getting married and my circle of friends has its first grandchild. I've been in my career for nearly 30 years and in my current job for almost 20. My beard is grey, my hair is thinning, little health problems are starting to pop up. In 15 years I'll be 65 and looking at retirement as a "soon" rather than "far off" thing (well, hopefully, anyway. Or maybe retirement will still be "far off" then).
New Year's Day is traditionally a time to think about the future rather than the past, even though the future is always built upon the foundations provided by the past. Turning over the calendar to a new year is an opportunity to decide to try something different in hopes of have better outcomes. This can be done any time, of course, but there's something symbolic about a fresh new year. My main functional resolution is to go to bed earlier and get up earlier so I can be more productive with less stress. The personal, life-enhancing resolutions are to be nicer to my wife and to balance work and life better than I have the past two years. I've made a lot more money but the cost has been a lot more stress, an ongoing sense of exhaustion and increased crabbiness. I want to ride my bike more and waste less time on the Internet (I waste a lot of time on the Internet). And finally to do more things with friends this year. We're not getting any younger.

