Ordered Chaos

Whether under pressure at work, at home or via social expectations of a “new you”, a new year can really be bittersweet. “What’s your New Year’s resolution?” To never ask anyone that question. Okay, I’ve never been one to make resolutions myself, simply because I consider January 1st an arbitrary day to declare newness.  I wonder, did people redefine themselves in March before Julius Caesar’s adoption of the solar calendar? Too bad for humanity during that first year in the solar calendar – they had to fail twice within the same “year” at becoming new.

Either way, however jaded I’ve become in my view of resolutions, maybe I’ve made a couple for 2010. Here’s one: to cross a big-ticket item off my list. Luckily I have a loving wife to support me in my decision to do so.  In June I’ll travel to Kenya for a month to volunteer teach elephants. Wait, I might see elephants, but I’ll actually be teaching children. My mind is in Africa overload. I’ll live with a Kenyan family, partake in Kenyan cuisine, and hopefully run with Kenyan…runners.

So maybe resolutions aren’t all that bad, even if they sometimes manifest themselves in sweaty, overcrowded gyms and cell-phone-toting treadmill walkers. Other times, people get to go to Africa.