New Year's Revolutions

I’ve been vaguely haunted this morning by the fact this is New Year’s Eve and technically my resolutions should be due. I’m all for resolution when it concerns the quality of my audio or video. I’m in favor of a few resolutions the various level of legislators make but mostly I don’t trust partisanship of any direction left or right so they’re few and far betwixt. I like resolution in music and argument but never understood it in math or meters.

I confess I never really kept a New Year’s resolution that I recall. Maybe I should just admit like alcoholics do with their juice that I have no power over New Year’s resolutions and make none. The steady march of my midriff through many New Year’s protrudes as proof.

I think we need not New Year’s resolution but actual New Year’s Revolution.

What would revolution look like in America? Thankfully I don’t think it would resemble Che Guevera. I think it would be revolutionary if we found more common ground and less of “them and us” mentality. Like it or not our country is diversifying and we need to find a way to reach across the chasm that is America at this moment in time. Responsibility for outreach lies on both sides. The path is equidistant in length from my view.

I realize this is hard in a 24 hour news cycle and Twitterverse. It’s hard to reconcile what happens with unarmed black men being killed by law enforcement with law enforcement officers being killed by armed young men. No scale seems to have been balanced. Every bad action seems to have a horrific counterpoint and everybody gets a shot at 15 minutes of the worst kind of fame.

The whole world is watching but what are we doing?

I realize it would be easier to resolve to lose 15 pounds than try and find a solution to our national malaise. All I can do as a representative of my age, class and heritage is to be tolerant of others not born with my advantages. Tolerance is not something that comes naturally but when it does it always seems to speak in my mother’s voice. We lived in Mobile, Al in 1964 and her speaking out on behalf of tolerance at the beauty parlor got the KKK newsletter thrown on our lawn every week. She was barely five feet tall but her voice was heard at a time few dared and her tiny difference made was planting a nagging conscience in me.

Maybe there are some baby steps I can take to help someone less fortunate and not let my ego deign to pretend to understand someone whose moccasins I haven’t walked a mile in. I’m a small percentage Cherokee so I’ve always liked the spirituality of the most maligned minority in America. Rev. Sandra Clay, my lady minister, sent a link on Facebook that I think verbalizes what we need to do to live together more amicably. The fact a Methodist minister quotes Native American ethics reaffirms my belief that she is a part of the solution and someone worth following. She is just what my church needed as she is a uniter and ministers to people no matter where they are in the faith journey.

A NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN CODE OF ETHICS 1. RISE WITH THE SUN TO PRAY, PRAY ALONE, PRAY OFTEN. THE GREAT SPIRIT WILL LISTEN If YOU WILL ONLY SPEAK. 2. BE TOLERANT OF THOSE WHO ARE LOST ON THEIR PATHS. IGNORANCE, CONCEIT, ANGER, JEALOUSY, AND GREED STEM FROM LOST SOULS. PRAY THEY WILL FIND GUIDANCE. 3. SEARCH FOR YOURSELF BY YOURSELF, DO NOT ALLOW OTHERS TO MAKE YOUR PATH FOR YOU. IT IS YOUR ROAD AND YOURS ALONE. OTHERS MAY WALK IT WITH YOU, BUT NO ONE CAN WALK IT FOR YOU. 4. TREAT THE GUEST IN YOUR HOME WITH MUCH CONSIDERATION. SERVE THEM THE BEST FOOD, GIVE THEM THE BEST BEDS, AND TREAT THEM WITH RESPECT AND HONOR. 5. DO NOT TAKE WHAT IS NOT YOURS, WHETHER FROM A PRSON, A COMMUNITY, THE WILDERNESS, OR FROM A CULTURE. IT WAS NOT EARNED NOR GIVEN. IT IS NOT YOURS. 6. RESPECT ALL THINGS THAT ARE PLACED UPON THIS EARTH, WHETHER PEOPLE, ANIMAL, OR PLANT. HONOR THE SPIRIT IN ALL THINGS. 7. HONOR OTHER PEOPLES THOUGHTS, WISHES, AND WORDS. NEVER INTERRUPT ANOTHER, MOCK OR RUDELY MIMIC THEM. ALLOW EACH PERSON THE RIGHT TO PERSONAL EXPRESSION. 8. NEVER SPEAK OF OTHERS IN A BAD WAY. THE NEGATIVE ENERGY THAT YOU PUT OUT INTO THE UNIVERSE WILL MULTIPLY WHEN IT RETURNS TO YOU. ALL PEOPLE MAKE MISTAKES, AND ALL MISTAKES CAN BE FORGIVEN. BAD THOUGHTS CAUSE ILLNESS OF THE MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT. PRACTICE OPTIMISIM. 9. NATURE IS NOT FOR US, IT IS A PART OF US. NATURE IS PART OF YOUR WORLDLY FAMILY. 10. CHILDREN ARE THE SEEDS OF OUR FUTURE. PLANT LOVE IN THEIR HEARTS AND WATER THEM WITH WISDOM AND LIFE'S LESSONS. WHEN THEY ARE GROWN, GIVE THEM SPACE TO GROW. 11. AVOID HURTING THE HEARTS OF OTHERS. THE POISON OF YOUR PAIN WILL RETURN TO YOU. 12. BE TRUTHFUL AT ALL TIMES. HONESTY IS THE TEST OF ONE'S WILL WITHIN THIS UNIVERSE. 13. KEEP YOURSELF BALANCED. YOUR MENTAL SELF, SPIRITUAL SELF, EMOTIONAL SELF, AND PHYSICAL SELF ALL NEED TO BE STRONG, PURE, AND HEALTHY. WORK OUT THE BODY TO STRENGTHEN THE MIND. GROW RICH IN SPIRIT TO CURE EMOTIONAL lLLS. 14. MAKE CONSCIOUS DECISIONS AS TO WHO YOU WILL BE AND HOW YOU WILL REACT. BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS. 15. RESPECT THE PRIVACY AND PERSONAL SPACE OF OTHERS. DO NOT TOUCH THE PERSONAL PROPERTY OF OTHERS, ESPECIALLY SACRED AND RELIGIOUS OBJECTS-THIS IS FORBIDDEN. 16. BE TRUE TO YOURSELF. YOU CANNOT NUTURE AND HELP OTHERS IF YOU CANNOT NUTURE AND HELP YOURSELF FIRST. 17. RESPECT OTHERS RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. DO NOT FORCE YOUR BELIEFS UPON OTHERS. 18. SHARE YOUR GOOD FORTUNE WITH OTHERS. PARTICIPATE IN CHARITY. BE WILLING TO GIVE BACK TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THE PEOPLE WILL LIVE.

My take is these are tougher resolutions to live up to than just trying to lose 15 pounds. Still, as I sit a week from the birthday that makes me eligible for social security, I will merge these 18 with 10 Moses brought down from on high in an effort to be a better boy in 2015 and beyond.

Losing 15 pounds would be a bonus!