The Restless ChronicleS

A hundred years ago, there were just over a billion people living on earth.  Today, that figure is closing in on 7 billion.  Still, mysteriously, none of us are the same; although we are 99.9% percent the same.  Through DNA sequencing, we’ve established the sacredness of the individual.  Through fingerprinting, we’ve established that friction ridge paths and the details in small areas of friction ridges on our hands and feet are unique and never repeated.  Meaning, at any point in life, if I should punch in your sacred code, only you, and you alone, would show up.

Hence, it is safe to assume there’s a logical purpose, a divine reason if you will, why there’s only one of you in a world of billions.

Resolutions are made at the beginning of every year.  Some feel they made one in previous years and fell flat on their faces; “So, why bother now?” they ask.  And some do not outright care—they go through each year with no benchmarks for it and play the game of chance.

In centuries past, certain civilizations considered suicide so heinous a crime, that the offender dared not be buried on sacred plot.  It was widely held that each soul is a sentinel, responsible for a particular post, and suicide constitutes relegation of that duty.  I mention this to not only build on the uniqueness and purpose of the individual, but to also state that while suicide is the ultimate end, one can still abdicate one’s post while living.

It is often said the wealthiest place in any community is the graveyard.  This is simply because therein lies unfulfilled, talents and skills, dreams and ambitions, the world never got a chance to see.  It is my ultimate belief that there’s something my neighbor does better than me, and inversely, there’s something I do better than my neighbor.  When I abandon or fail to develop what comes naturally to me, not only am I killing myself softly, I am also holding my neighbor hostage.

There is nothing as tragic, I believe, as being persuaded by others that one’s dream or vision is unachievable.  Our lives today are made better by men and women who achieved the impossible—the unthinkable.

Still, in starting this year, not all of us can have a resolution to be the president of the country (too bad there can be only one president at a time, huh?), but there is one or two resolutions we can make that will make our neighbors, our communities, and the world better.  Be it shedding that excess weight so you can feel less tired and be more confident about yourself; be it volunteering at that place you’ve been thinking of; be it recommitting to school to get a better job; be it spending more time with the kids—you can indeed grow from the old you of 2009.  The only constant in life is change, and if change is going to happen anyways, regardless of whatever you do, you might as well have a say in making it a positive one … right?

I for one have decided on one bad habit to kick and one good habit to reinforce.  What’s yours going to be?  The great American poet and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, made a great point in his essay “Self-Reliance.”  He wrote: “God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.”  So if you expect anything to change with you this year, it will not happen with you not fighting for it or not being conscientious about it.  I do not believe there’s such a thing as an “accidental champion.”  But if you don’t care, then please, by all means, ignore this—but don’t forget, someone somewhere is waiting, relying on what is within you.

Life happens, and I do get that.  But no matter how much life happens in 2010, please always keep the faith and let your concern for your neighbor keep you going, even when you feel you’ve had it up to here.