This is your LIFE: Some assembly required

“The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple, and yet baffles us altogether.”

 

We are thinkers. Some are deeper thinkers than others, but we are all thinkers. As such, we read. We contemplate. We attend seminars (even host them). We imagine. We discuss. We slowly construct and reconstruct our pathway to where we want to go.

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There is a date looming on the calendar in the not-so-distant future that brings with it an amplified tendency to examine and analyze the many components that comprise our current mosaic of life. Herd mentality lures us to this annual drawing board, and most often we stroll into the early weeks of January to the beat of a different drum, mirroring the Counting Crows refrain, “This year will be better than the last.”

In reality, by the time stores are pushing chocolate hearts our way, just in time for St. Valentine’s Day; 2012 will look very much like a continuation of 2011. Insider secret:  2012 IS a continuation of 2011.    Sorry.

So, why do we habitually isolate a single day at the end of each year to muster a new-found resolve to make the next 365 better, different, more fulfilling, etc. with one solemn promise to our inner self?

Most likely, we do because it’s traditional. And, since there are a lot of people participating in this grand activity all at the same time, we have the benefit of an instant support group & pressure release served up in a nice, neat package. 

We’ve also found that counting backwards from ten at midnight is a transcendent thrill, unlike any other.

 At this point, three options dangle:

1. Easy – Repeat the process one more year
2. Also Easy – Skip the resolution part and just enjoy counting backwards at the appropriate moment
3. Not So Easy – Refine the process slightly, in hopes of making this year “better than the last”

 

The opening quote was lifted from Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Purloined Letter” a short story penned in the shadows of Baltimore, circa 1845. The story is about a letter that has been stolen for the purpose of blackmail. The person being blackmailed not only knows who took the letter, but watched as it was stolen, unable to call attention to the theft at the time.

The blackmail continues unabated for well over a year, while the authorities are stumped at every turn in their efforts to retrieve the stolen document and set the afflicted party to liberty. The short read, as it is masterfully woven by Poe, provides a fascinating study in human behavior and reasoning. The powerful premise unveiled in the opening paragraphs provides a marvelous secret that is often discarded.

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“The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple, and yet baffles us altogether.”

“Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault.”  

 - Edgar Allan Poe

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 To set ourselves to aspirations, without simplistic methods as to how these aspirations, regardless how basic or how lofty, may be attained; is but an exercise for the sake of exercise.

Legendary football coach, Lou Holtz, once said:

“When all is said and done, usually more got said than done.”

 

Here’s to those with the dedicated will and persistent work ethic to daily tip those scales in the opposite direction. May I possess the determination in the coming year to do so as well.

- Part One of Two -

Originally posted on Dec. 20, 2010

Shared as a “Way Back When’s Day” flashback on December 14, 2011

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