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Reflections on New years resolutions and news

The biggest news in this blog I think would have to be the fact that I AM ACTUALLY SHOWING SIGNS OF KEEPING A NEW YEARS RESOLUTION FOR MORE THAN A FEW DAYS! (I am referring of course to my new year's resolution to keep my blog up to date- I'm going to try and post once a week at least) There seem to be certain phenonomenon/events/actions in our world that form microcosms encapsulating so many concepts and dilemmas of the human race-I often look for such things as starters for poems.
Take for example my poem "the human condition" in an earlier post, which was inspired by watching ants and considering how similar they were to our society, I'm not the only one who thinks so. Proverbs 30 is an excellent example of how a good poet can use snapshots of particular phenomenon in the natural world to open up worlds of truth.

Such things don't have to be in nature. Shakespeare recognised the inadequacy of the natural world for understanding humanity in his famous Sonnet 18. New Years Resolutions are an example of a people-made phenomenon that raises so many interesting questions. For some strange reason people in our part of the world put an imaginary pinpoint in their calendar, at which time is divided, and upon arriving at which all travellers must sing "Auld Lang Syne" as a right of passage. But what is time and how do we measure it? Does it flow slowly, naturally and purposefully like a river or is it pushed along kicking and screaming? Does it race along excitedly? Do we float on top of the water or are we buried underneath the slowly accumulating sedimentation? Are we completely separate from the river altogether, sitting on the banks urging it to stop?

New year's resolutions seem to encapsulate the conflict and mix of all these sensations that we feel at this time of year. On the one hand we feel a sense of loss and tragedy. All the missed opportunities of the year, all the things that we enjoyed but can never have again, the memory of so many mistakes. In a new year's resolution, and in that famous song, we try to cherish those memories and be happy in them, whilst also putting our mistakes behind us. We try to combine that urge to hold onto what we once had, and the urge to start again with a clean slate. And we make these resolutions with trepidation. What is the source of our fear? It is not so much to outside world as ourselves. New years resolutions to lose weight/give up smoking etc don't fail based on the falling of a meteorite or a freak hailstorm, they fail because our resolution fails. We know this, and so we don't trust ourselves. Yet we continue to make resolutions. Why? Well sometimes they work, we all want a better life, a better world and a better self, and occasionally people can achieve that....but can we?

Here is the paradox of humanity...those who climb to great heights also fall from them.

posted by Foodfairy @ 1:55 PM