Resolutions or revolutions?

Here we are, once again, at lots of people's favorite -- and for others, their least favorite -- time of year. Sweep out the old, usher in the new. The problem is, the new isn't always that new, and it's astounding how soon the new starts looking a whole lot like the old.

Today's the day of resolutions, too. Most of us may pooh-pooh them, play them down, say they don't matter, but I'm always surprised at how many people still make them ... to themselves for the most part. We don't need to hang our failures out like the rest of our dirty laundry that we too often air in public. Sure, we'd like to be better persons, we'd love to take off a few pounds, we wish desperately that we got along better with friends, lovers or spouses, we think we can do something, but in the end, we only end up disappointing ourselves. Why? Because resolutions are revolutions.

Nothing in the history of the world has changed because someone, or even a lot of people, thought, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if ..." It doesn't happen that way. For every progressive, life-altering change that we experience, there's a lot of agony, pain, suffering and resistance that precedes it. Sound, profound change has to be smelted in the fire of resistance, hammered by the force of will, and tempered in the waters or renewal. Change is just that: change, not merely a-lot-of-the-same-with-a-little-bit-of-difference. That's not change, that's accommodation. We love that change best that affects everyone else and not ourselves. That's why resolutions don't work. We'd like to, but we're not really willing to; we mean to, but we're not going to; we want to, but we just can't bring ourselves to it. Forget the resolutions.

Change comes by revolution. That's just how it is. Oh, it may be political, it might be personal, it might be violent, or it might be benign, and it might involve others, or it might just involve ourselves. What it does involve, however, is energy and actual change. A revolution, it should be remembered, is a full turn of the wheel. It's going all the way around, not just part of the way. It's the bringing forth of the new, not a reestablishment of the old. You want change? You need a revolution.

Our new year is an arbitrarily chosen date (there were lots of other, more meaningful ones available, but we chose this one ... so be it), but it's as good as time as any to at least reconsider. Arbitrary or not, it is an opportunity and it's up to each and every one of us to embrace it or reject it -- in the end, it's all our own choice. I can only encourage you to go for it. What have you got to lose, other than that which you really don't want anyway ... or you wouldn't be thinking about changing it in the first place.

New year, new chance, new start, or just more of the same, old same-old? It's your call.