I’m not much for resolutions for the sake of tradition. If you’re going to make a change in your life, July 23 is just as good as January 1. The point is to begin, and to do your damndest to stick the landing. I do like to take stock over New Years though. It’s a good time to grab a few introspective moments, and think about the big things, and where I am in that cosmic slush.
I drove three of my visiting sister-in-laws to downtown Orlando to hit the clubs last weekend (yeah, we are all in our 40’s, shut up). On the way we listened to a cd my brother-in-law made, containing everything from that bear song by Lyle Lovett to Pink Floyd. Then a live recording of The Moody Blues, I’m Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band, came on, and the car was suddenly a chorus of “people who are scorching the earth”.
It is no accident that liberals have been calling for planet preservation for nearly my entire life. What is interesting is that this means that nearly two generations of American kids have grown up listening to social responsibility in their music, and many have translated that into a green mindset. The key to moving this country off oil dependency is the receptivity of the consumer to making changes in their purchasing and consumption. I think we’re going to hear a lot of green music, both old and new, in our advertising in the next 10 years, as our cars, our fuels and our packaging are marketed to us, in a language we intuitively understand.
Starting at Lent last year, my first as a soon to be Catholic, I gave up sugary food. For six weeks, I eschewed the donuts, breakfast bars, cookies, and candy. The toughest was ice cream. Man, I LOVE ice cream. I made it, though, and I found I’d lost almost 10 pounds. So, I kept it up, and reasonably avoided most sugary treats for the rest of the year. The upshot is I lost 27 pounds. I feel great, and I think I’m going to try to lose a bit more. So sugar, for the most part, is staying off the table for me, and this year I’m giving up wine for Lent. Trust me, when I mentioned that over the holiday, it garnered some raised eyebrows. I think that it will be good for me, and incorporated with some exercise will help shed some additional weight. I am not doing this for anybody but me, and I think looking at diet and weight loss as love for yourself takes some of the sense of denial from it. I’m not skipping ice cream and hurting myself, I’m skipping it because I love myself. All we need is love, right?
Fat is the new black in this country. We denigrate the heavy to their faces, and we use fat as a derogatory descriptive to slur everyone from the guy (fat fuck) who cuts us off in traffic to the ex-girlfriend (fat whore) who dumped us. This is what this country sounded like in the previous millennium, and regretfully, in pockets still today, when we talk about African-Americans. Please tell me it won’t take 3 generations to grow past this insane need to name call and bully anybody who isn’t shaped like you. Each life is precious, each life has meaning. This idiocy of needing to define ‘us versus them’ is national crack. Put down the pipe before you pollute your children. There’s a vicious cycle to emotive eating, and extreme ‘in your face’ prejudice perpetrates it.
This country is ready to elect a black president, but we damn sure won’t vote for a fatty. Think about it.