NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

Paul Cummins
Mirror contributing writer

   Resolutions are, of course, dangerous thoughts to put to print publicly. As one wag wrote: “He who breaks a resolution is a weakling, he who makes one is a fool.” The unpredictability of events and human frailty have a way of demolishing the best of intents. (Why, just remember it was only a campaign ago when GWB was railing against big government which is now his new best friend.)  Nevertheless, it’s fun to think of all the virtuous things one would like to do in the coming year.
   Resolution one is hardly worth mentioning but I mention it just to establish solidarity with several million other Americans—to lose weight.
   Resolution two is to re-read three of my favorite fictional classics. The need, primarily professional, to read contemporary literature means that I often read five pounds of mediocrity for every one ounce of pure quality. So in 2002 I plan to re-read Don Quixote, particularly as there is a new, highly acclaimed translation by Burton Raffel. Don  Quixote is perhaps my favorite book and with each re-reading I discover new reasons why. The themes of appearance vs. reality, of dreams and illusions, of a man inventing himself, are profound. Faulkner claimed to read Don Quixote once a year, “as some do the Bible.”
   The second classic is by Charles Dickens. Martin Chuzzlewit marked a new direction for Dickens in which he goes deeper into character than before and his characters, such as Pecksniff, Mrs. Gamp, Slyme, Tom Pinch, and Tigg are unforgettable. Nevertheless, the book’s theme of greed and selfishness reflect Dickens the social reformer at his most insistent.
   And my third re-read is to be Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. In this novel, Dostoevsky succeeded in the enormously difficult task of creating an absorbing and believable character who is thoroughly good. Prince Myshkin’s personality and fate capture some of the glory and evil of the human condition.
   My third resolution is to memorize more lines of poetry. Specifically, I will select lines from Shakespeare, such as:
    “Our revels now are ended.
   These our actors,
   As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
   Are melted into air, into thin air.”
   Or lines from Shelley, such as:
   “Rose leaves, when the rose is dead
   Are heap’d for the beloved’s bed;
   And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
   Love itself shall slumber on.”
   Or from Keats:
   “Adieu! Adieu! Thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side, and now ‘tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
   Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
  Fled is that music: Do I wake or sleep?”
   I find that when I carry lines around with me, their very sounds and rhythms, in addition to their meanings, enrich quiet moments in between revels and sleep.
   My fourth resolution is to continue to infuriate at least some Santa Monica Mirror readers with my “bleeding heart” liberalism. After all, what good is a column if it doesn’t provoke at least a few angry letters to the editor? Furthermore, liberals are really an endangered species. The press is certainly not liberal—despite the conservative conspiracy to make it seem so by constantly referring to “the liberal press,” a phrase which has no grounding in reality since “the liberal press” doesn’t really exist. Most publications are owned, operated, and shaped by conservative wealth. So I resolve to continue my quixotic musings about how nice it would be if we really paid attention to eliminating poverty in the USA and other such visions or waking dreams.
   So, above are a few resolutions, destined to fall short, but enjoyable in the contemplation thereof. I invite any reader to submit his or her own resolutions and, perhaps if I receive a few, I will devote a future column to them.
   In conclusion, Samuel Johnson has this to say about resolutions: “Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.”
   Paul Cummins is the President of Crossroads School, a founder of New Roads School, and the Executive Director of the New Visions Foundation.