New Year’s resolutions

Fandango’s Provocative Question #150

Fandango33 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

It’s that time of the year when people are starting to think about making resolutions. Many people use the approaching new year to take stock of their lives. They look behind at the past year and reflect on their achievements and failures. Often, they focus on the mistakes they made, their broken promises, and unfulfilled dreams. They resolve to improve themselves, to get a fresh start as the brand new year commences.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. It’s not that I’m perfect and there’s no room for improvement. That’s far from the case. But I don’t like that feeling of failure when my resolutions to get more exercise, to eat healthier, to watch less TV, or to be a better human being inevitably fall short. So if I don’t make any New Year’s resolutions, I won’t beat myself up for not being able to keep them.

But a lot of people, in an effort to reinvent themselves, do make New Year’s resolutions as a form of self-motivation. These resolutions are about hopefulness, and people make them with the hope of changing their lives for the better by changing themselves for the better.

So my question this week is a simple one.

Do you plan on making any New Year’s resolutions this year. If so, can you share a few of them with us? If not, why not?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Share Your World — The Year’s End

Fandango12 Comments

It’s her final Share Your World post for 2018, so this, too, will be my final Share Your World response of the year to Melanie’s final Share Your World post of the year.

For the parents in the crowd:  What would be the absolute worst name you might give your child? If you’re not a parent (I’m not), then what’s the worst name you could give your pet?

Any name that other kids will have a tendency to make fun of or to create a mean nickname.

What mildly annoying curse might you wish you could curse annoying people with?

Are you asking about a curse as in a spell, or a curse as in a “dirty” word? In the case of the former, I am neither a witch nor a wizard, so I lack the ability to cast a curse. In the case of the latter, if someone was annoying me, I might tell that person to “F-off,” but I’m not sure how “mild” a curse that would be. Maybe I’d just tell them to “go suck an egg.”

What’s the weirdest thing you did as a child?

I would purposely drop ice cream on the sidewalk in front of my house, wait for it to melt and for the ants to come find it. When enough ants got there, I’d grab a hammer from my father’s tool chest and start smashing all of the poor ants with it. Of course, this was way before violent video games existed. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.

Do you believe things happen for a reason or are random?

Yes.

And finally, in the spirit of New Year’s: What’s a resolution (if you make them, I don’t) you’re making for the New Year?   How confident are you in keeping it a reasonable amount of time?

Sorry, but I don’t make New Year’s resolutions because I’m confident that I won’t keep them.

Be It Resolved

Fandango14 Comments

13D14C4A-A715-458A-ACCB-FB40BCA04DB7I originally wrote this post at the end of last year for one of Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompts. I thought, because of the subject matter and timing, it would be worth reposting it.

Many people use the approaching new year to take stock of their lives. They look behind at the past year and reflect on their achievements and failures. Often, they focus on the mistakes they made, their broken promises, and unfulfilled dreams. They resolve to improve themselves, to get a fresh start as the brand new year commences.

New Year’s resolutions are an effort to reinvent oneself; they are a form of self-motivation. People make them with the hope of changing their lives for the better. Unfortunately, most such resolutions are not kept for very long. So why bother?

Resolutions are all about hopefulness and people have been making these annual resolutions for centuries. The act of creating such resolutions has reportedly been around since Babylonian times, when the Babylonians were said to have made promises to the gods in the hope that they’d earn good favor in the coming year.

Some sources say that the tradition of New Year’s resolutions dates back to around 150 BC. January is named after the mythical early Roman god Janus, who had two faces, which allowed him to look both back on the past (the old year) and forward toward the future (the new year).

This became a symbolic time for Romans to make resolutions for the new year and to forgive enemies for troubles in the past. Janus would forgive the Romans for their wrongdoings in the previous year, and, based upon gifts and promises, would bless them in the year ahead.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. It’s not that I’m perfect and there’s no room for improvement. That’s far from the case. But I don’t like that feeling of failure when my resolutions to get more exercise, to eat healthier, to watch less TV, or to be a better human being inevitably fall short. So if I don’t make any New Year’s resolutions, I won’t beat myself up for not being able to keep them.

Having said that, the one resolution I do plan to keep is to continue blogging, so long as it’s still fun, fulfilling, and doesn’t become a burden.

Happy New Year, fellow bloggers. And for those of you who do make New Year’s resolutions, best of luck. Because the odds of success are against you.

Bright, Sunny Questions

Fandango5 Comments

0B7F046B-D7F8-4AD1-81FC-028DBD971D12JP, The Wide Eyed Wanderer, was just nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award. She thanked the person who nominated her, answered his questions, and then posed her own three questions, which she invited “everyone” to answer.

1. Since everything is all about holidays right now, what is your favorite holiday? And why?

My favorite holiday used to be The Fourth of July because (1) I loved to go see fireworks and (2) it was my older sister’s birthday. When I was a kid, she would tell me that the fireworks displays were to celebrate her birthday and I didn’t understand why there weren’t fireworks on my birthday. But I’m no longer a fan of Independence Day because my dog is deathly afraid of fireworks and so those damn Fourth of July fireworks make it a miserable night for my poor dog, and thus, for me and my wife. Did I answer the question?CBC4A56A-BD2E-4219-97F0-3182AFD411A7

If you could wish for one thing for the whole world, what would it be?

I’d wish for the world that Donald Trump would no longer be President of the United States and, would, therefore, no longer present a clear and present danger to the rest of the world.

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? If so what’s top on your list for 2019?

Nope. I don’t make ‘em because I can’t keep ‘em. Unlike Donald Trump, who claims, as president, that he has kept more promises than he has made, I am unable to do so. (Do you sense a trend here with my answers?)

SoCS — Be It Resolved

Fandango7 Comments

096DAA0E-6257-4002-9B90-6251F972E3E8Linda G. Hill chose the word “resolution” for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, which is an apt word to choose, given that today is the last Saturday of 2017 and it’s a time when many of us are making our New Year’s resolutions.

Many people use the approaching new year to take stock of their lives. They look behind at the past year and reflect on their achievements and failures. Often, they focus on the mistakes they made, their broken promises, and unfulfilled dreams. They resolve to improve themselves, to get a fresh start as the brand new year commences.

New Year’s resolutions are an effort to reinvent oneself; they are a form of self-motivation. People make them with the hope of changing their lives for the better. Unfortunately, most such resolutions are not kept for very long. So why bother?

New Year’s resolutions are all about hopefulness and people have been making these annual resolutions for centuries. The act of creating such resolutions has reportedly been around since Babylonian times, when the Babylonians were said to have made promises to the gods in the hope that they’d earn good favor in the coming year.

Some sources say that the tradition of New Year’s resolutions dates back to around 150 BC. January is named after the mythical early Roman god Janus, who had two faces, which allowed him to look both back on the past (the old year) and forward toward the future (the new year).

This became a symbolic time for Romans to make resolutions for the new year and forgive enemies for troubles in the past. Janus would forgive the Romans for their wrongdoings in the previous year, and, based upon gifts and promises, would bless them in the year ahead.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. It’s not that I’m perfect and there’s no room for improvement. That’s far from the case. But I don’t like that feeling of failure when my resolutions to get more exercise or to eat healthier or to watch less TV inevitably fall short. So if I don’t make any New Year’s resolutions, I won’t beat myself up for not being able to keep them.

Having said that, the one resolution I do plan to keep is to continue blogging, so long as it’s still fun, fulfilling, and doesn’t become a burden.

Happy New Year, fellow bloggers. And for those of you who do make New Year’s resolutions, best of luck. The odds of success are against you.