Happy New Years
I know, it’s already mid-way through the month, but I have been really busy since the actual new year and writing fell pretty far down my list of priorities. This is the calendar year where America turns 250 years, and I want to try and focus on that with stories unique to our country. For my foreign readers, I respect that you have great pride in your own country and hope that you will appreciate the soties and experiences I share about mine. I monitor my reader countries of origin and can say that in the past few years I have a dedicated following in countries as diverse many European countries and quite a few hits from China. I’m sure having the word “submarine” in my subject line drives a lot of that traffic. Sorry to my Chinese friends that they will gain no strategic advantage to reading my stories.
But today is just a self-reflection. I belong to the writer’s club at my resort, and I had an assignment for this afternoon’s session. This is what I will submit:
New Years Resolutions
New Year, new directions.
This is the seventy first new year that I have experienced in my journey. I don’t remember the earliest ones of course as I suspect most of us can say without many reservations. But as I became more conscious of my surroundings, I am sure that I remember the excitement of those around me about the passage of time.
Some of my early memories include my mom and dad getting dressed up in their finest clothes and heading out to the Mountain View Inn for an evening with other adults. The Mountain View was an elegant destination in the foothills of the mountains in Western Pennsylvania. The air would be filled with the sensations of big band music intertwined with the smells of cigarette smoke and perfumes. The dancers would swing and sway with Danny Kay and relive the romances that brought them together.
I would later join them with my high school sweetheart when I came home on leave from the Navy. I was in my dress blue navy uniform, and she was dressed in an outfit that was striking and bold. My mom had to pin the front of it for modesty’s sake, but the pin did little to add much modesty. The memory lasts forever but the girlfriend did not. That would be the last New Years we would spend together and she would fade into the distant memories of what could have been. To be fair, she did me the best favor a girl could since it allowed me to later meet the girl I still celebrate every new year with.
Thinking about new year is like standing on a dividing line between what has been and what is about to unfold. No matter what mistakes or triumphs happened in the previous year, a quick turn to the right would bring you face to face with the unknown. This unknown had the potential to be a restart and a refresh. Like looking at a blank screen on the computer or a blank sheet of paper if you are old school. In either event, no writing appears until you make an effort to do so. Like an unspoken word, the great next chapter is completely unknown.
I find myself at that point each year hoping that the internal spark that has driven me in the past will return. After a lifetime of writing, what stories are left to tell? In my seven decades, there have been so many highs and so many lows. Triumphs that tower over the mountains I have travelled and sorrows that have often driven me to the darkest despair. But in either event, I found that the journey is not complete. Something else is just beyond the horizon and surely will be a reason to keep writing.
I’m an optimist at heart despite my journeys into a few bouts of mild depression. I don’t think I am much different from anyone else. The new year mainly brings out the optimistic part of my soul. Based on a lifetime of experience, I honestly believe that the chances for something really interesting happening drives me more than any sense of foreboding. I have kept a record of the many places I have travelled and visited. My brother gave me an atlas for a gift so that I could always see where I was on my travels. It’s stunning to see how many adventures there have been.
I thank my parents and so many good people who have encouraged me for that sense of optimism. So many of them saw the potential in me when I did not. Those moments where they lifted me up are the best moments of my life. Subconsciously, I suppose that drove me to repay the gift when I was in a position to do so.
There was the young lady who was afraid of speaking to groups of people that I pushed to overcome her fear. She would come from a challenging educational and class burden to earn a degree in business management. The failing young sailor who lacked direction who would later become a Chief Petty Officer and distinguish himself in his service. A protégée in a small manufacturing company that just needed someone to trust him to become that great leader he is today.
I have a drawer filled with awards and certificates from every phase of my life. But none of them compares to the achievements of knowing that there are more people in the world that might have a good memory of our time together than there are those who had a bad experience.
What does this year bring? The possibilities are endless. The sheet is partially blank now. If I have learned anything, I want to keep the words and thoughts as positive as possible. Circumstances may sometimes try and overcome us. But the ability to overcome being overcome is the real secret to life.
I no longer bother to make resolutions. Like many people, those resolutions might as well be written on the thinnest plies of toilet paper. No one expects you to keep them and, in a flush, they are gone, never to be seen again. Instead, I focus on just being as good of a person as I can be. I actually have some control over that effort and find that it results in a better outcome.
The Mountain View Inn burned down decades ago. Mom and Dad are dancing in heaven now and I know I am closer to joining them today than I was yesterday. On New Year’s Eve, I always make an entry into my weatherbeaten old atlas on where I was at the time. It’s somehow reassuring that I still made the entry again this year. The hope each year is that it won’t be the last entry. I imagine that someday the book will find its place in a landfill when the nieces and nephews clean out the house. None of them will see any value in a beaten-up book that reflects countries that no longer exist. But the book is an affirmation of an old Dr. Seuss poem called “Oh the places you’ll go”. The good doctor created a poem that was indirectly a guide to my life. From the poem:
You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)
KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!
Happy New Year
theleansubmariner 