One-One-Ten

Happy New Year! Don't worry, I'm not going to get all self-reflective and sappy. I just wanted to point out two things:

First, it's interesting that this has been such a wonderful decade for me personally, despite being such a terrible decade for the world. I met my husband, graduated from college, was admitted into a fantastic graduate program, traveled to Australia (twice!), got married, earned my Ph.D., landed an awesome postdoc, attended many happy high school and college and grad school and law school graduations for my brothers and friends, watched my brother-in-law get married, and bought a house. Oh, and the Lord of the Rings movies came out (*fangirl squee!*). The world, meanwhile, has gone to hell in a handbasket: 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, two fruitless wars, economic collapse, defeat of many gay marriage initiatives, increased polarization of the political and social sphere, and the death of George Carlin, just to name a few. Life's funny that way, I guess.

Second, I wanted to share a thought from my yoga instructor, although I might not be remembering this correctly since I was straining my calf muscles and sweating bullets when she said it. But the basic idea is this: Don't make resolutions. Resolutions are static, easy to break, and set us up for failure. I'm going to write six papers! I'm going to lose 10 pounds! I'm going to go to the gym twice a week! Ugh. It's exhausting just to think about.

Instead, adopt an intention. Having an intention is not the same as having a concrete goal. It's less tangible than that, and it asks one to try to shape one's behavior in all aspects of life. I think it's close to Kant's concept of the regulative ideal: something to strive for, without necessarily having an expectation of reaching it. For the new year, I can adopt the intention of patience, or openness, or being in the present moment, and I can try to use these intentions to inform everything I do --- at least, as much as I can on any given day. I don't have any particular hope of succeeding at becoming a thoroughly patient person, or someone who can truly just live for the moment (me? really.), but in this case, it's the trying that's counts.