Don't feel need to make resolutions

I am writing this on Dec. 28.

A new year, 2019, is fast approaching.

Outside, it’s snowing, and since I don’t have to go anywhere today, I am joyfully watching the white blanket grow as it covers the lumps and bumps in my ill-kept yard with graceful, drifting curves.

This close to the new year, one could say it symbolizes the pure blank page of fresh starts the next year will bring.

This column will publish on the second day of 2019, but I’m happy to report on Dec. 28 that I neither contemplate nor intend to make resolutions for 2019.

To be sure, there are a lot of things I should try to be better about, some things I should stop doing and maybe some things I should start doing that I am not doing now.

I’ve lived long enough, however, to know that if I pledge any improvements in the name of a fresh start in 2019, my resolve will fade before I stop correcting the year after I write “2018.”

I am not resolving to lose a few pounds because of the new year. It’s because my clothes are reminding me they were meant for someone slightly narrower, and I don’t want to buy new clothes. It’s cheaper to eat less food.

My resolution to be better about making some reports is based more on recognizing the value of predictable cash flows and of avoiding small but annoying fines than on the arrival of a date on the calendar.

I have a tendency to be somewhat tardy. It annoys me, even in a rural area where clocks are assumed to be for estimating, not measuring, the time.

Still, tardiness speaks to a failure to plan or anticipate, and to that I too often plead guilty. This should apply to more than the first two weeks of 2019.

I should also stop being disorganized, but I can’t get my act together enough to organize how I will get organized. This will apply in 2019 as much as it did in 1979, though.

Once again, it’s not calendar-dependent.

There are two items on my list of new things to try. One is calculus. The other is learning to play the bass.

Calculus? First, I’d have to risk serious mental injury with trigonometry, then assure it with integrals and differentials. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

So, maybe not. At least not in any year that ends in a digit between 0 and 9.

The bass?

I play keyboard instruments, and I’ve been fortunate enough to work recently with a couple of really good bassists.

Why bother? I’d rather listen to them.

I will enter 2019 burdened with things to correct, things to prevent and efforts I should make.

Am I resolved to take action as the new year dawns? Check back with me, maybe in March.

In the meantime, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a happy new year.

Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at:

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