What will you be in your new year?

 January 8, 1999
The New Milford Times
H O M E & FAMILY
What will you be in your new year?
BY TERRI ANDERSEN Contributing Writer
There's something about a new year that makes us want to make a new beginning, improve on the old year and do better in whatever it was that we weren’t quite satisfied with in the past year. For many people it's their body size. (How many resolutions to lose weight are made at the beginning of a new year?) For others, it's a resolution to do better with the way they're handling their lifestyle, be it the way they handle money or the way they manage their relationships with their partners or their children. If they didn't get it right in the past, a new year seems a good time to resolve to do better. Whether we want to admit it or not. I think we all have some kind of standard of perfection built into us that begs to be considered. Take the issue of weight. Is there really a perfect size for humans to be? I watched a television show once where a 600 pound woman was pretty much confined to her bed. When she was asked what her weight loss goal would be, she answered, “If only I could weigh 300 pounds. I could live a normal life.” Ask a 300 pound woman that same question and she'd probably tell you she would be perfectly happy at 150 pounds. But how much do you want to bet that most 150 pound women wish they could be 130 or 120? Then there’s the issue of features that often lead to cosmetic surgery. Either the nose is too big or the breasts too small or the hips and stomach have too much fat; it goes on and on, that quest for perfection. Another subject that brings resolution into play is a person's financial situation. Don’t we all wish we had enough money to buy what we want but also have a nest egg for that proverbial rainy day? So we resolve that this year we'll save at least a few dollars every month or invest in something that will bring us financial rewards, but do we actually do it? We keep seeing things we just have to own and those credit card bills don’t let up on us. Yet that picture of a perfect life with everything we want in it doesn't go away. On a spiritual plane, someone might resolve to be a better person by being more generous, more patient, more loving, or just kinder in general. Maybe a husband and wife might resolve to find more time to nurture their relationship with each other or with their children. (Now and then it would be nice to hear of children resolving not to fight with their siblings, but that might be asking a bit much.) Maybe co-workers could resolve to get along better, not to let little things bother them so much. But all of us could afford to be a little more thoughtful when it comes to other people, and that could help make the world just a little closer to that perfection we all seek.