I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t make decisions on January 1, anyear A.D., because of guilt. Any other day of a year, however, guilt is an acceptable motivator.

On January 3, 2008, I made a decision: in 2009, I will be Samson. I’m not going to shave or cut the hair on my head, and I’m going to become a hairy beast.

私は白熊と申します。

The story of Samson comes from the Book of Judges in the Bible – it starts in Judges 13 which you can read in the English Standard Version or any other version.

Categories: Life
Tags: New Year's, The Samson Project

I will clean the toilet! I will see a concert this year. I will change jobs at least once this year. I will eat pizza. I will feel pain (done!). I will watch the sun shine over the tree tops (done!). I will bite my fingernails (done!). I will rock out (All Time Low – done!). I will take the GRE.

Should be done by the end of January. Not sure what I’ll do with the other eleven months.

Categories: Life
Tags: New Year's, resolutions

I made several resolutions last week despite never desiring to make New Year resolutions. It’s a product of bad timing. I broke down on New Year’s Eve.

Seattle will not be my excuse. I’d blame it on loneliness and desperation based on being in a new place with few friends and little to do, and you would believe me. But it wouldn’t be true. The rain factors not (I actually don’t mind rain… much).

My break down has little to do with location. It’s related to me and mistakes I’ve made. I don’t know enough about psychology or any scientific or religious system to tell me how I’ve developed emotionally into this person, but I am prone to addiction.

If you’ve never had opportunity to notice, let me inform you: addictions are harmful. Dangerous. Disguised. Sneaky. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually destructive.

The worst part for me has been the awareness. I’m aware of the harmfulness of addiction. I see it hurting me. I see the potential for it to hurt others through me.

When you were a child, did you ever dream and fantasize about alcohol? Did it ever seem to be the best way to spend a night?

Somehow the world of adults in our society becomes consumed by alcohol. At my present job, my peers plot Saturday night outings to downtown where they can bump, grind, and get immensely drunk. People share stories of drunken adventures to see who has the coolest tales and who can claim to be the toughest drinker.

Then one day a man can wake up and realize he drank the night away in solitude. The hangover sucks, but worse still is the realization of defeat. See before you the man beaten again by addiction. One more night in a finite life destroyed by liquor. Where will it stop?

He knows it’s not the first time he’s failed. He need merely think back a week to a similar event. He sees what’s happening.

The man cries as he sits in his chair reading AA literature and contemplating his state of existence. What did he do to let addiction gain such a hold?

(To Be Continued…)

Categories: Life
Tags: alcohol, New Year's