A new year and old resolutions

New year's day has come and gone, resolutions have been made and broken, and I am yet to give my start of year statement. I've seen many statements vilifying the year, or even the way it ended. I've heard horror stories of the way people were finally glad the year ended and hoped for better things in the year to come. I cannot claim the same. This year, for me, was an interesting year. I have gone through the gamut of rationality and emotion. I have failed a few things, and succeeded in others. I have lost and I have found. But most of all I have lived.

First let me write about someone I rarely talk about. My girlfriend. Like every other man I think she's the most beautiful person I have ever met, online and offline, and I hope that she thinks I am the partner she has always wanted to be with. She's miles away from me and I'm not even sure she knows this is about her. Yet she is one person who inspires me. She has her achievements, and failures, she has opportunities I have lost and has lost opportunities I've found, and she is one of the few people I can honestly say I'd like even if she was not my girlfriend. I cannot say she really knows what I feel about her, nor can I say that she looks at me as the infamous knight in shining amour. On third thoughts I cannot even really say that she thinks I am the person she wants to spend her life, or even those few minutes, with. There is quite a lot I do not know about her, and there is a lot she does not know about me, and yet even in that ignorance there is a lot I do know, and what I know I want to be with. You see, it's not about her, her looks, her character, her habits or even what she has done, it's about me. Even she she had not noticed me, or even talked to me I would still think she is beautiful. Even if she had stuck to the parameters which we had first met I'd still think her somebody worth knowing. My life is enriched by having her in my life whichever way she gets into it.

Then we have my friends. Those I met through FIKA. Those we decided to THINK! together. Those we decided that the change begins with us. We have met, talked, discussed, drank and done stuff together. We have a long year ahead of us and a lot of our work is cut out for us. We have to change our villages, our towns, our countries and our world. We have to try, even when it appears hopeles. We have to reach out and clear the world of ignorance inasmuch as it is the desired state, and we have to stand up and say THINK! It is a journey we have started, and it would be sad if we do not continue. It's a journey without end, for even while we clear the mists of ignorance we raise the spectre of prejudice, elitism and intolerance. We have to constantly watch against ourselves even as we watch out against others. We have to remember that we may lead people to the promise land but like the Moses, of fable, we may not reach it ourselves, but that should not stop us from showing the way.

 A new year usually comes with the undeserved expectation of new things. We forget that the old us keeps on going even when the year changes. If we do not change over a new day we should not expect to change over a new year. We are the same people, we have the same prejudices, we have the same wants, needs, desires and dislikes. Changing the date does not change us, the only way that we will change is if we change ourselves. However even while I reach out the conciliatory hand towards others of unlike belief, I will not coddle injustice, or lie in a bed of intolerance. I will not stand irrationality or countenance bigotry. I will not stand by and see ignorance rule and neither will I give respect to ideas that oppress us and keep us in bondage. Our public conduct, or public rules and our public behaviour should be based on rationality and logic. While I'll respect your right to believe I expect you to know that your right ends where it infringes on the liberty of others, and respecting
your right does not prevent me from ridiculing, laughing at or even condemning your ideas. If your ideas, or mine, appear in public space they will be subject to criticism, ridicule and analysis in the measure that they deserve. You, and I, have no automatic right to a hearing. To my girlfriend I do hope we spend a large part of my life together.

To my FIKA compatriots we need to THINK! To my friends lets take ourselves out of the quagmire we found ourselves in and to my enemies, it did not really need to be this way.

Lets take a deep breath and look at what we are doing to the world, to our countries and to our fellow humans. Let's ask ourselves if that is what they'd want to be done to them, and let's consider that even while we may think we are right we are not the ultimate, or the only, source of goodness in this world. As the earth rotates and we appear to see a new sun let's dedicate this period to making the world a better place than we found it.

 As for my new year's resolution, it will be 1680 by 1050. It will have to suffice.