Some hopes and wishes for the New Year......
·
That
I reclaim what was once a very important virtue to me—patience. I seem
to have lost it during the past few years. Or perhaps I cast it to the wayside
without really being aware of doing so.
·
Ditto
for faith. Having trust and faith in the present and the future, that all
unfolds as it should, in time. Faith and patience seem to go together. I had
more of both when I was younger, during times that were much more difficult
than any present situation.
· Hope too. Without it, life seems rather meaningless and bleak.
·
That
people drop their envy and learn to compliment others when a compliment is
warranted. This doesn’t mean faking it or being superficial. It means being
honest. When someone else has succeeded, achieved something you haven’t, or
simply looks nice one day, for God’s sake, be happy for them. Let them know
that you are happy for them. It doesn’t diminish who you are. It may be your
turn the next time. And then you’d like others to be happy for your success
too.
·
That
the focus on competition in all things is de-emphasized. It is important to
know and recognize that all individuals have different talents and strengths.
It is not necessary for an artist to compete with a scientist for the same
goal. Ditto for a scientist and an accountant, or a scientist and a politician.
God bless the differences between us. I don’t want to be an accountant, but I have
a lot of respect for what they do. Please respect my profession (science) and
stop asking us to be something we’re not at work (accountants, secretaries,
administrators, delivery people, media wizards and IT-experts).
·
That
this culture learns for good that
differences are good. All men are not created the same. We are different from
everyone else already at birth. That is what the word individual denotes. We may enjoy the same access to opportunities,
education, healthcare and the like, but we are not the same and we will not use
these opportunities in the same way as everyone else. Can we for once
acknowledge our differences and even celebrate them?
·
And
while I’m at it, I hope that my workplace learns to respect its employees. They
certainly haven’t done a very good job of this up until now (if ever). Perhaps
2012 will be the first year that employees in my workplace feel valued and
useful. That would be an amazing thing and go a long way toward creating the
kind of loyalty and dedication my workplace desperately seeks.
·
That
politicians and administrators stop trying to regulate every little aspect of
our lives. A lot of us feel micro-managed, at work and outside of work. Can we
stop now please? Can we be treated as the adults we are and not reduced to the
level of kindergarten children in all things? I know how to read, write, and
interpret what I read, make my own decisions, and take care of my health. Ditto
for so many other things. I’m a skeptic by nature, so leave me alone. Don’t
force your opinions down my throat. I don’t need a hundred ‘besserwissers’ (German for know-it-alls)
to lecture me every time I decide to do something that falls outside of the A4 (conforms to same standard) lifestyle that defines a lot of Scandinavia. There’s always someone to tell me ‘you
don’t want to do that’ (yes, I do) or ‘why do you want to do that, it’s not
going to work’ (because I want to and I didn’t ask for your opinion or your
advice, and yes, I think it’s going to work).
·
That
skepticism of the media increases, that we become warier of what we let into
our minds and hearts, and that we learn to recognize evil for what it really is
and how it manifests itself in modern society—as banality, hopelessness,
indifference, apathy, need to control, need to dominate, need to destroy—in short,
a type of negativity that is soul-destroying.
·
That
we work for justice, fairness, honesty and compassion to counteract the
negativity around us. All we need to do is to start in our personal lives—treat
the people around us fairly, honestly and with compassion. And they will do the
same with those around them. And so on.
·
That
we ‘light a candle rather than curse the darkness’. Let’s light a thousand,
even a million candles.
