Wide Wide Open

An invitation to possibility

Resolutions are a scam.

Make them if you must but ask yourself… does this vow you swear at the flip of a year truly help you in any meaningful way? Or does it add one more expectation to your burden, weigh you down with one more two-ton SHOULD.

You should lose weight. You should stop smoking. You should spend more time on that hobby, with your children, with your parents, with your friends, with your dog. You should exercise more, drink less, travel, write, meditate, read, walk, cook, go back to school. You should you should you should… Most people make resolutions only because they feel the overwhelming pressure of all those shoulds.

It’s the right thing to do, right? Self-improvement or self-care or whatever?

I call bullshit. Not on the idea of betterment, but on the capitalist-driven notion of New Year, New You.

New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, this first week of a brand new year, it’s not a magic portal. It’s a clerical arrangement. Back in 1582 the Pope made a tweak to Julius Caesar’s calendar from 45 BCE and upgraded the timekeeping system to the one we use today. So whether you label that system scientific or the megalomaniacal machinations of powerful men throughout the ages, every 365-ish days, our calendars run out of days and must be…