birdsonawire
  • Blog
  • Chirps
  • About
  • Contact

Happy New Year: Words to live by

12/31/2010

3 Comments

 
From today’s Washington Post

Eat, pray, love and other resolutions for 2011

By Kathleen Parker
Friday, December 31, 2010; 8:00 PM

It befalls the columnist this time of year to look back and recap; to assign blame and shame, while offering the obligatory mea culpa; and, of course, to resolve.

It befalls the mature columnist (23 years and counting) to sigh in protest: Oh, must we?

Wars, tax squabbles,gas hikes, Haley Barbour, Russia, nukes, China, jobs, yaddayaddayadda and Julia Roberts. Haven't we traveled these potholed roads before? And tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow? Is there anything left for which to apologize and/or perchance to predict?

As the dastardly decade of our newest millennium settles into history's tidy dustbin, death and taxes remain our most reliable antagonists. Repeatedly, we have met the enemy, and he is still us. Inarguably, there is nothing new, not even in the downloads of a WikiLeaked cable. Humans remain human, and the more we know us, the less we like us. Familiarity, contempt and all that.

Nevertheless and ergo, to wit and harrumph-harrumph, herewith KP's un-jaded, un-cynical, appropriately abbreviated (you're welcome) list of resolutions for all times, but especially now.

Eat, Pray, Love. Sort of. Call it EPL 2.0: Eat less, pray in private, love because . . . what's the alternative? For those preferring a deeper, drill-down, policy-wonkish, name-your-cuts approach, EPL can be loosely extrapolated as: health-care reform, church-state separation and human rights imperatives in the Post-Goldman Sachs World.

Permit me to elaborate, beginning with our favorite topic: Eating. And of course "death panels." The thread is stronger than it might first appear.

Let's keep it simple: First, there are no death panels. There are (and should be) limits to what can be done in our futile efforts to forestall death, but medical torture in one's waning days shouldn't be among them. Given limited resources and exorbitant costs - and our apparent terror as (choose one) the Dark Abyss or heaven awaits - not everybody can have everything.

Them's the facts, and thus it is highly likely that health rationing, already practiced by insurance companies, is inevitable. You won't exactly see bureaucrats giving Caesar's thumbs-down to Granny's heart transplant, but the recently installed cap on Medicare costs will mean that certain treatments won't be reimbursed and, well, time's up.

So how does one emerge a winner in life's little lottery? Scam the system by eating less. It's that simple. By eating less, we are less likely to become fat, which leads to multiple health complications, most of which can be avoided. Shop the perimeters of the grocery store (i.e., whole foods) and eliminate sugar. Easy.

Pray there's a heaven but do pray quietly. It can't be a mystery any longer that the God urge has a disquieting effect on certain members of the human tribe. I share the urge but have found ways of communing that don't require converting others, invading countries or shedding infidels of their heads.

Fundamentalists, no matter what their path to glory, share a streak of intolerance that can't have much to do with any but a malevolent creator's design. Either such a creator is undeserving of worship, or the worshipers have misread their scripts. Whichever the case - and to each his own - what anyone prays is no one else's business. Let's leave it there.

Finally, the most sublime for last: Love.

We are mightily confused about this matter, but it, too, is a simple thing. You won't find it in a crotch-grabbing music video. It doesn't have much to do with downloaded porn or "friending," tweeting, Facebooking or, most certainly, sexting. (O' for the days when verbs were verbs and nouns were nouns.)

At the risk of sounding preachy, God forbid, it's about giving. Yet another simple concept, we see it relatively seldom. We have the "giving season," a largely tinseled affair of extravagance and delayed debt. We give "gifts," but they are mere things, easily discarded, rarely cherished and hardly sacrificial. A few bucks handed to a store clerk don't much get to the heart of matters.

Here is giving: Listening. Sparing time. Not interrupting. Holding that thought. Leaving the last drop. Staying home. Turning it off, whatever it is. Making eye contact. Picking it up. Taking the room's temperature. Paying attention. Waiting.

More Golden Rule than heavenly virtues, but you get the drift. Do unto others, and, who knows, maybe they'll make a movie starring Julia Roberts.

The alternative is surely hell.

[email protected]


3 Comments
tnlib
1/1/2011 05:29:19 am

I like this gal enormously. Happy New Year to you.

Reply
Nance
1/5/2011 06:26:52 am

Reply
Nance link
1/5/2011 06:28:55 am

(Oops, a comment boo-boo.)

I loved this, too. She's my Ms. January, 2011.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

    NOTE: Scroll down the page. At the bottom, click on the word Previous, to continue to another page. 


    Blogger Profile

     

    Retired reporter, writer, wife, mother, stepmother, grandmother, photographer, singer, knitter, kayaker, cook, swimmer --  not all at the same time
    songbird@birdsonawireblog.com


    Follow @phbehnken

    Blog Awards
    Honest Scrap
    Kreative Blogger

    Click here for
    Swimming as Meditation



    click here for
    Martin Luther King:
    Ordinary Acts,
    Extraordinary Courage


    click here for
    Photo Postcards


    click here for
    The Day JFK Was Shot

    click here for
    The Fall of the Berlin Wall
    series 

    Archives

    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009



    Posts

    All
    1960s Sit Ins
    2010
    2010 Photos
    911
    9/11
    A Cappella
    Adirondacks
    Advice
    Age And Beauty
    Aging
    All Things Swimming
    Amazing Stories
    American Idol
    Anne Frank
    Ann Mcneal
    Anti-intellectualism
    Archer Mayor
    Art
    Arthritis
    Audacity To Believe
    Author
    Authors
    Autumn
    Babyies
    Bastille Day
    Beach
    Bears
    Beauty
    Benefactor States
    Berlin Wall
    Bill Campbell
    Birds
    Birds' Books
    Bird Sightings
    Birthday
    Bloggers
    Blogging
    Blogs
    Blue
    Bob Dylan
    Bollywood
    Books
    Bruce Hartman
    California
    Cancer
    Cell Phones
    Change
    Chile
    Chirps
    Christmas
    Circus
    City
    Civil Rights
    Civil Rights Movement1
    Civil Rights Movement2
    Civil Rights Movement3
    Civil Rights Movement4
    Civil Rights Movement5
    Civil Rights Movement6
    Civil War
    Clips
    Coffee
    Coffee Party
    Connie Wilson
    Contraception
    Contracetion
    Daisy Mayhem
    Dance
    Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness
    Dartmouth Aires
    Dealing With Physicians
    Death
    Dirty Sparkle
    Disasters
    Diversity
    Divorce
    Dixie
    Domestic Violence
    Earthquake
    Elaine Magalis
    Enjoy Yourself
    Evolution
    Fair
    Fall
    Fall Of The Berlin Wall
    Family
    Fashion
    Films
    Fish
    Flood
    Flowers
    Fourth Of July
    France
    Freedom Riders
    Freedom Rides
    Friends
    Fun
    Future
    Generations
    Genetic Testing
    George Rhodes
    Getting Had
    Getting Older
    Girls
    Going Home
    Good News
    Graduation
    Grandmothers
    Great Blogs
    Growing
    Growing Older
    Guest Art
    Guestbook
    Guest Photo
    Guest Post
    Guest Posts
    Guns
    Haiti
    Happy Birthday
    Healing
    Health
    Health Care
    Health Care Reform
    Heat
    Henrietta Lacks
    Heroes
    Hip Replacement Surgery
    Home
    Honors
    Immigrants
    Immigration
    Inauguration
    Injustice Anywhere
    James Reeb
    Jour J
    Kansas
    Kayaking
    Kennedy Assassination
    Kiva
    Knitting
    Legacies
    Leigh Russell
    Like A Mighty Stream
    Looking Backward
    Loss
    Make A Career Of Humanity
    Malaria
    Map
    Maple Sugaring
    Martin Luther King
    Martin Luther King Quotations
    Martin Luther King Quotes
    Material World
    Medicare
    Meditation
    Melting Snow
    Mentoring
    Mindfulness
    Mlk Memorial
    Mlk Quotes
    Mlm Memorial
    Mother
    Mothers
    Music
    Must Reads
    Mysteries
    Nairobi Trio
    Navigation
    New England
    New England Winter
    News
    Normandy
    Occupy Wall Street
    Overriding Loyalty To Mankind
    Pain
    Pamela Chatterton-Purdy
    Panama
    Panda
    Parenting
    Paris
    Party
    Paula Dumont
    Peace
    Photo Postcards
    Photos
    Politics
    Postcards
    Poverty
    Protests
    Ptsd
    Queen Medley
    Race
    Racism
    Rain
    Rani Arbo
    Rape
    Recession
    Relationships
    Religious Bigotry
    Rihanna
    Road Signs
    Rules Of Dreaming
    Sabrina Cohen
    Sarah Palin
    Secession
    September 11
    Service Projects
    Shakespeare
    Shine On
    Shopping
    Site Map
    Sit Ins
    Skiing
    Sluts
    Snakes
    Snow
    Social Security
    Spring
    Summer
    Surgery
    Surviving The Sixties
    Survivor
    Survivors
    Survivorship
    Susan Boyle
    Swim Group
    Swimming As Meditation
    Switched At Birth
    Tea Party
    Technology
    Ted Kennedy
    The Arc Of The Moral Universe Is Long
    The Band
    The Civil War
    The Day Jfk Was Shot
    The Great Depression
    The Sixties
    Time Goes By
    Toys
    True Peace
    Turning 65
    Tweets
    Twitter
    Unions
    Vegetables
    Vermont
    Vincent Van Gogh
    Visitors
    Volunteering
    War On Women
    Water
    Weather
    Weddings
    We Shall Overcome
    Where We6444ab37d9
    Where Were From171c5aacf5
    Where We Stand
    While We Were Sleeping
    Wilmington Vt
    Winter
    Wisdom
    Women
    Women As Consumers
    Women Bloggers
    Womens Blogs
    Womens Issues
    Writing


    Blogroll

    A Little Red Hen
    Arts & Letters Daily
    Blog of Ages
    The Boomer Chronicles
    Cab Drollery
    Can It Happen Here?
    Cogitamus
    Common Weeder
    Darlene’s Hodgepodge
    Fifty Shift
    Health Matters
    Hill Country Mysteries
    Just A Song
    Kevin MD
    Late Fruit
    Mature Landscaping
    Mindful Living Network
    Montpellier Daily Photo
    Parsley’s Pics
    Really Relative
    SW Dunn
    Switched at Birth
    The Third Third
    Time Goes By
    Two Seeds on a Blog
    Weekly Wilson

    Womens Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory
    Personal Blogs

    Paulah's bookshelf: read

    A Scattered LifeMurder in the MaraisA Girl Like YouThinner Thighs In Thirty YearsBy NightfallMurder in Passy

    More of Paulah's books »
    Book recommendations, book reviews, quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists


    Local Food and Local Farms

    free counters