Challenge

As it’s almost New Year and a time to make that resolution which next year will be a huge success, I thought I’d start off by having a quick look at where this practice began. Well, it seems that once again it’s those Babylonians who kicked things off some 4,000 years ago. At the beginning of their new year they would have a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu in which they crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king. They also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. If the Babylonians kept to their word, their gods would bestow favour on them for the coming year.

Nowadays, of course, it’s more a case of setting oneself a challenge. Start running, pack up smoking, lose weight, paint that wall, pick up litter in streets, start that novel, finish that novel and I’ve seen lists that go on for over sixty New Year Resolutions including Take More Breaks. So if you’d like to go and make a cup of tea, dunk a couple of biscuits then start on the next paragraph in about 15 minutes, that’s fine.

Well, as we’re readers I came across a list especially for us. I liked that idea so here is mine. The challenge is to read the following:

A book by Penguin. That’s an easy start.
A book by an author whose surname begins with B.
A book mentioned in another book.
A book about an historical event you know nothing about.
A book with a character who has a pet dog.
A winner of the Booker Prize. (Sorry).
A book with another book on the front cover.
A book with a colour in its title.
A book of poetry by a poet living in Preston.
A book set before the 18th Century.
A book to do with football.
A book set in Australia.
A book with a politician on the front cover. (Sorry again).
A book by Dickens.
A book about water.
A book about travel.
A book about cakes.
A book about train spotting.
A book about Babylonians (I’ll give you Mesopotamia as well).
A book with a mountain on the front cover.
A book related to your childhood.
A book written by a South American.
A book about chess.
A book set in the winter.
A book written by an artist.
A book related to New Years’ Eve.

I have taken it easy in my list of 26 as the original one had 52 types of book to read. I think the tricky one will be about train spotting. But I have two on my shelves. Don’t say a word.

This was my New Year’s Resolution a few years ago:

Resolution

don’t fly,
don’t drive,
vacuum regularly,

concepts my dog can’t follow
because, well, she’s a dog
and I’m human, capable of reason
even, especially, after three pints
on New Year’s Eve

and sometimes
the harder the resolution
the easier it is
while merely saying
I might eat less Green and Blacks
70% dark chocolate
made with the finest Trinitario
cocoa beans for an intense taste and
certified to Soil Association standards
for organic food and farming
has me scouring cupboards

and later
the Oxford English
where a promise is a promise
but a resolution’s a separation of components
a proposal to a meeting
or the removing of doubt
so if there’s doubt
then I’m removing it
by not making a resolution to...
I like to think that’s reason.

First published by Ink, Sweat and Tears in January 2018

Many thanks to Steve for all his work on the Blog. And a very Happy New Year to every one.

Terry Q.

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Psychic Sheilagh's Prediction for 2015

A new year, a new beginning, a fresh start, a resolve that things are going to be better. How many times do we make new year resolutions, only to see them evaporate by – well, January 2? We mean well, of course, and this year is really, really going to be different – until reality sets in and we lapse into our usual way of being, for we are human, with all our misfires and lapsed good intentions.

For years I have had but one  new year resolution. It is to ‘Do It Now’. For an Olympic class, nay world champion, procrastinator such as me, this is a big ask and it is therefore a resolution doomed to failure.  This year, rather than set myself up for the customary disappointment in myself, I resolved to make no resolutions whatsoever. Will my year be worse because of this wilful refusal to join the resolution game? I don’t think so. It will pan out just as it would have done anyway.

I suppose I have a pretty jaundiced view of the concept of ‘good’ years and ‘bad’ years and the hope that ‘next year’ will be different.  Some people seem to designate whole years in this fashion, based on a single good or bad experience that assumes an overweaning importance over all others. In truth, life is a continuum of events, feelings and experiences, extremes of enjoyment and misery and every nuance in between. If there’s one thing I have learned, it is that nothing good lasts for ever - and nor does anything bad.

So, here is Psychic Sheilagh’s prediction for 2015 for all of us – more of the same. Different combinations, maybe, of contentment and unhappiness, highs and lows; much to enjoy as well as, inevitably, some regrets; plenty of humdrum routine, leavened by an ace party here, a child’s hug there, a good footie result, a great book; relationships will break up and make up; and change can be made at any time, not just at the turn of the year. Enjoy it all, accept it for what it is – life.

Here’s an untitled poem I found, by Ellen Wheeler Wilcox, on the new year:

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That's not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the burden of a year.

Thank you for reading,

Sheilagh

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