Looking to the Future

It’s that time of year when trash cans have digested their diet of Christmas wrapping paper, and now is the time for poets to write the soothing rhymes of what we want in a perfect world.

The very idea of New Year’s Resolutions invites image of cliche beauty contests. “I wish for world peace, and ending poverty.” The artificial smile reflects the spotlights but doesn’t go very far reaching toward the heart.

I was recently asked what I wanted for Christmas. I frequently ask myself how I should answer such a question. Do you want the realistic, the top shelf dream, maybe the philosophical?

This particular moment I dodged the question, trying to have a little fun with the moment. I think of things I’ve done, places I’ve been, adventures I’d love to relive. Coasting into an inlet on a dugout boat like I’m reliving the part of Dr. Livingston, putting up walls like I was born a mason, soaking up culture like I was born on the wrong continent. Moving concrete like I was half my age

But then I’m reminded of a saying. I don’t remember if it was treated as Asian, or Native, and it really doesn’t matter. The lesson is the same: “a man never walks through the same river twice.” The water you walked through yesterday has moved on, with all of the clarity or contamination it carried. It looks the same, but it is different and will likely impact the intruder differently.

We’ve been through a lot in the last year or so; culturally, locally, nationally and even globally. Who would have thought a president would get derailed because he said mean things? Who would have thought a virus with an unknown history can do more to cause fear than a front door assault? Who would have thought a governor could effectively apply house arrest without cause? Who would have thought standards encouraged a decade ago are forgotten for those on the other side of the equation. Who would have thought violence would become so bad businesses consider closing their storefronts and sell their wares online only.

We are living in a world with more questions than answers. We approach the first of the coming year with the New Year’s Resolutions in mind. But how can we look to the future if we’re not sure of our past? Can you build the second floor of a house without confidence in the foundation?

We need to make goals, and resolutions — two different things — as we are young in the new year. We need to make realistic, and grandiose goals, goals that the next can be built on the previous. Resolutions imply a shortfall or defect has been detected and needs corrected. How can we know what needs corrected if our foundation is unsure?

Maybe instead of rushing the happy list of soothing goals, we should step back long enough to understand how we got where we are, and where the journey started. It is difficult to know where you are going if you don’t know where your journey began. Don’t live in the past; understand it. Use it as a springboard for some place you haven’t seen.