New Year's a time for resolutions

December 29, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

In two days, the old year will cede its reign to the new one. The old is over, with its ups and downs, its glory and its pains. Nobody can change that. We can remember and draw lessons from the past.

But the New Year that is arriving is full of opportunities and promise. We have our New Year's resolutions that are made for those next 365 days.

It seems it is human nature to attach hopes and expectations to somewhat arbitrary milestones. Jan. 1 is, after all, just another day.

Even knowing that, each year most of us affirm an intention to be kinder, eat less, exercise more, read more, spend less time online. ... It is our natural urge to improve, to restore, to progress that makes man different from other living beings.

Whether our roots are in Eastern or Western cultures, this characteristic is one we share.

I have a propensity to pepper my columns with the words of others. Some may find it "cheating" that I rely on third parties to fill this space, to some degree. I happily point out, however, that I believe in recycling even shop-worn truisms from time to time if I find them relevant and well-said.

And so I will indulge that habit here. The upcoming new year prompts my own retrospective and anticipation of a year ahead that offers much promise.

West meets East

A Sanskrit (a South Asian language that dates back to 1,500 B.C.) poem reads: "Look to this day, for it is life, the very life of life. For yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision."

It continues, "Today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day. Such is the salutation to the dawn."

The West meets the East in thought.

Spiritual programs in the United States emphasize not yesterday, which is gone, nor tomorrow, which has not arrived, but today, which is here and now. "This moment is the only moment you have. Respect its possibilities. ... Regardless of what this day brings, thank God. An untouched day awaits you tomorrow."

American poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: "Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine."

"However good or bad a situation is, it will change," I referenced a powerpoint presentation in this space last week. And I often quote Lord Buddha's "Everything changes, nothing remains without change."

Buddha taught us, "No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path."

The serenity prayer, translated into many world languages, looks for "serenity to accept" the things that cannot be changed; "courage to change" the things that can; and "wisdom to know" the difference.

Here and now

A school of thought says the problem with the past is that people tend to ruminate and get stuck. This can render one dysfunctional. But by focusing on the future, we may miss an obvious choice point in the present. As Mother Theresa advised, do what is in front of you!

The Christians' Golden Rule, dubbed by Wikepedia as "the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights," has a corresponding measure in each of the world's great religions.

The great Chinese philosopher, Confucius, preached, "Do not do to others that which we do not want them to do to us." This is a good place to start as we think of how to conduct ourselves in the new year.

It has been posited: There are only two kinds of bad situations, those that can be solved and those that cannot. Thus, people can either "get busy" fixing the problems that can be solved or "get busy" accepting the predicaments they must live with -- using positive and interpretive thinking.

Story for the New Year

Last year, a friend e-mailed me the "Law of the Garbage Truck." What? I was glad my quick fingers didn't press the delete key.

A passenger is riding in a taxicab to the airport when a car cuts in front of the cab, causing the cab driver to slam on the brakes. The taxi screeches to a halt only inches from the car ahead. Whipping his head out the window, the driver in the car ahead yells at the cabbie. The cab driver smiles and waves. The passenger asks the cab driver how he has managed to stay so calm.

"Many people are like the garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger and disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they dump it on you," he explains.

"Don't take it personally. ... Don't take their garbage and spread to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. Life is too short. Successful people don't let garbage trucks take over their day."

Happy New Year 2011 to all!

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.