I don’t make New year’s resolutions, however if I am going to suggest a change in culture, a fresh resolution might interest those who have already cast aside the ones they made the evening prior to January 1st. Changes this large would fall on deaf ears in the heat of the summer but January may find ears eager to participate in change.
Most of my suggestions are simple improvements. The first would be less arrogance. I have found that those who think they know everything and those who know nothing display almost exactly the same symptoms. They are two sides of the same ignorant coin. The only way to tell them apart is that the first group is louder and more aggressive. We are a world that seeks to speak in the way we have learned from the talking heads on television. We live for the “gotcha” moments that are earmarked by little or no substance and high-volume melodrama. The only remedy I have found for my own arrogance is to be quiet and listen. It is my suggestion for others who seek humility.
So many of our problems are because we see compromise as weakness. One reason for this is that well before a discussion has reached any meaningful common goals, it has turned into an argument. The argument has featured so many personal slights and insults that each party has staked out an island of ideas which they will never cede to the other. The area in between these imagination-locked areas is a no man’s land of compromise. Giving a little to get a little seems to be okay to me. I think there is an ultimate right that we will find out one day, however for now we should show each other love and allow each other space in this world. There are certain moral and religious ideas which I will never compromise as they are in the interest of my eternal soul. Subjects that are purely of this world are always subject to meaningful change as I see it, they just require a little compromise.
A friend and I recently discussed how busy we are as a culture. It’s like a race to see who can be the most tired. We are so proud of our ability to multi-task yet we enjoy none of the tasks we juggle and our only memories are that of the dread we feel as we jump into another endeavor. We compare ourselves with others and feel they live a more complete life because of their unrelenting schedule. This has to stop, right now. We need to be less concerned with time management and more with allowing ourselves some rest. One mammoth time-waster is social media. I like social media for the links it gives to verifiable news and for seeing pictures of friends and family (and cat pictures). Reading all of the rage and half-truths used to sway public opinion via social media is like throwing your precious time into a fire pit.
Finally, I think we need to trust more. We need to forgive our fellow humans and trust them, particularly when they fail our trust because of human frailty, as opposed to malevolence. I think we also need to remember that God is still in control and that the good in this world starts in our own hearts and our own daily actions as they ripple out and create the surface upon which others walk. Enjoy 2024 and live it in a way that will not reflect guilt in 2025.
