The circle of life
By By Leada Gore, Editor
Like so many other people, I often make certain goals to start the new year. These pledges, known as New Year’s resolutions, start formulating in my mind about mid-December.
And, again like so many other people, my resolutions often involve health and weight loss. These usually enter my mind as I’m wolfing down some Christmas candy around Dec. 15 and realizing that this pace can’t go on forever. To solve this problem, I offer a rationalization. It’s OK that I eat the candy, I tell myself, because I will go on a diet after Christmas.
Sure, it’s justification, but there’s no point in trying to diet in the middle of the holidays. Also, it’s rude to not sample some of the candy my grandmother made and I wouldn’t want to offend her.
So, I wait until after Christmas to turn over my new leaf. That sounds really good on Dec. 26 but I soon realize it’s foolish to try and start something new the week between Christmas and New Year’s. It seems there’s still some of grandmother’s Christmas candy laying around, not to mention some leftover cheese ball that I would hate to see wasted.
So, I wait until after New Year’s.
And, since Jan. 1 is a holiday, you can’t really start something new on that day, so I pledge to start my new behaviors Jan. 2.
It’s about this time that I realize my birthday is only a week away and it would hurt my mother’s feelings if I didn’t eat some of the cake she prepares for my birthday. There’s no point in starting something only to blow it Jan. 10.
And after that?
There’s Valentine’s Day in February, followed by Greg’s birthday. Then, there’s St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Sutton’s birthday and Labor Day. All of these celebrations conveniently involve cake, general celebration, etc. It seems sort of foolish to start something new at this point, doesn’t it?
Of course, right after summer it’s time for Halloween and, before you know it, Thanksgiving. Following that is Christmas and everyone knows Christmas is no time to start a diet.
And then, it’s time for New Year’s and some more resolutions. And then the cycle begins again and, once again, the resolutions fall by the wayside.
But I guess that’s the way life goes. I think it’s called the “Circle of Life” or something of the sort.
Happy New Year!
