Resolved

I'm making only one resolution for the New Year: to approach physical and spiritual perfection.

Actually, I'm not so ambitious. I just want to cut down on the degree to which I engage in the seven deadlies and to spend more time time doing enriching things rather than liming as much as possible. I don't aim to give up liming altogether, mind you, just to expand my horizons.

In reducing the seven deadlies, I am going to focus on the ones that seem to be my favorites: sloth and gluttony.

The aforementioned enrichment program goes to sloth to some degree, but I would also like to be more productive around the house. When I see I formation of dog hair that resembles a tumbleweed roll by, I would like to be the kind of person that decides to vacuum. Also, Mrs Vache Folle does way more than her fair share of domestic chores, and I want to be a better husband and pitch in more. Perhaps that will encourage her to be more willingly helpful with my outdoor chores and get me in her better graces. I should exercise the dogs more than I do. They enjoy getting out, and they are way less annoying when they are tired. I aim to go to the gym more frequently, possibly every day, but to moderate my routine so that I'm not constantly hurting myself. I want it to be fun, possibly even more fun than sloth itself.

As for gluttony, I'm not going on any crazy diet or resolving to lose some unrealistic amount of weight each week. Rather, I aim to eat only really good food and to avoid eating crap that I stuff into myself for the sake of eating. I aim to cook more and to use better ingredients and to strive to make my eating habits reflect my moral and political values. It will be harder to eat, mind you, but more rewarding and less fattening because I will have to be careful about where my food comes from and how it's made and by whom. I will explore the vegetable kingdom as a source of nutrition more than I have in the past. I will imbibe less alcohol and the empty calories contained therein.

In the enrichment department, there are a couple of things I would like to work on. I have always wished that I could play a musical instrument but have never actually tried to learn to play one since the 5th grade when I gave up on the clarinet. I do know how to play the recorder, albeit badly, and I resolve to work on playing it better. I have already learned in the last couple of weeks to get into a higher octave for several notes and can play in three keys (no more than one accidental, please). I have been reading up on music theory and have been enjoying sitting down with the recorder to practice now and again. By year end, I'd like to be able to play readily all the notes, including accidentals, in the full range of the instrument and to play readily in more keys (maybe up to three accidentals). I reckon that would be doable without becoming a chore.

I have also always wanted to be bilingual and not just in Standard English/Cracker. So I aim to study French which I studied for two years already in university. By year end, I'd like to be able to read a newspaper in French and to speak it well enough to rent a hotel room and find the bathroom in Montreal. Doable? I hope so, because I'm not going to go crazy with effort on this one, just enough that it's fun.

I would like to work on my social phobia, also related to sloth, and to get out more. I aim to volunteer with my church's Community Maintenance Program which meets monthly to work on needy folks' homes. I know I can't do much in the way of building, but surely they need some unskilled labor to haul away refuse and such like. If that works out, I would consider joining one of the small groups at church and even volunteering for more activities.

I wonder how soon I will fail in all these endeavors and how much self loathing this will entail.