Resolution remorse

It's January 2nd and that's the day most people traditionally ask themselves "what the hell was I thinking when I made that New Year's resolution?". Every year we find out the hardest part of any resolution is actually doing it, though I think part of the problem is combining unreal expectations with the holiday pressure of promising to do something significant. It's like the young literary that's told James Joyce's Ulysses is the greatest book ever written in the English language. By the time he reaches page three he feels like he's the victim of a practical joke.

Considering how past resolutions have went, I resolve to gain twenty pounds and lose $100,000. One year quite a long time ago I resolved to start my own religion. Several of my friends were supportive of the idea and we placed a personal ad two local newspapers. It was before the day of the internet. The ad read "New Messiah seeks converts and flocks of faithful followers". We all had a good laugh when we saw our ad published and then can the responses. A few informed us that God was probably very displeased with us and tempting eternal damnation but we expected that. To our shock many more letters came from people who were sincerely interested in our "new" faith. It was so many letters I thought we were being counter-pranked until took several letters at random and discretely investigated the return addresses. They were legit.



There is an inborn need to find and create patterns, to make order out of chaos, to create answers where there really might not be any. The possibility of life being just a string of random events that only have rhyme and reason when connected to physical laws of the universe. That's kind of scary -even an Old Testament God of capriciousness and wrath is a bit more comforting than nothing. It's sort of like being the child of a moderately abusive parent, it's still better than being an orphan. Even among the hardcore atheists I know, a universe of only atoms and energy is not a very comforting place.

       
Carl Jung wrote at length about Synchronicity and Apophenia as though all the random stuff that happens has some kind of reason behind it. The idea of Apophenia is easy. Certain patterns will have the similar meanings across cultures and history because our brains are all hardwired the same. So put two circles side by side, then put a dot center of each circle and like on the TV game show Family Feud 89% of the people will say they're breasts, 9% will say a pair of eyeglasses and the remaining 2% will just say something ridiculous.

Synchronicity is very problematic. How can you measure the true value of "meaningful coincident". Often you have to wait after the fact to have any context to put it in. Or as one store goes a high school football team was in the team bus traveling to the regional championship game. Every one was excited and all pumped up. the coach looked out the bus window and saw a flock of migrating geese. He brought to everyone's attention that the geese were flying a V formation and that V was an omen -it stood for victory. Unfortunately for that football team, they found out V could also stand for vanquished.

Another News Years resolution is to read On The Nature Of Things by Lucretius. It was written about 50 BC (or should I say 50 BCE to be PC). Lucretius took a look at the universe and concluded that what you see is what you get and it is all nothing but the"dance of atoms".  I think somewhere in the Book of Romans it said you should never take away a person's faith because that might be all they have. Maybe it's like locking a humidifier and de-humidifier in a room and seeing who wins.

Another resolution for 2013 is to invent something. A computer / espresso maker could be the next big thing, first I'll convert the CD-DVD player into a cup holder.

January is such a crappy month around here. When it's not bitter cold, it's just cold and damp. As a promise to myself I still keep looking for those transcend moments in life. Carl Jung wrote about that experience too. Just about everyone has had such a moment, usually they are in their 20's, often at college or away from home. It's that mystical feeling of being totally at one with the universe, experiencing something greater than yourself and then becoming part of it and then an equal partner with it. I'm sure it all has to do the brain chemistry of a young adult finally on his own and getting off on the intensity of a world that still looks big, bright and promising. Keeping that feeling through adulthood might be one of the qualities of an artist -then again some might see it as a sign of metal illness.

One other thing January is known for -this is month Hollywood releases the dogs. The month of January is so notorious it was the inside joke behind the title of Keven Kline's biggest flop.

My friend Harrison claims 2013 already has it worse movie of the year. Playback had a opening week gross of less than $500. This is sad because I have seen movies with a budget of $500 that had better box office returns.  

I'm curious to hear about your New Years resolutions. Or any good ideas of how to get through January.

If there is any willing converts or followers out there, I could be convince to revive that concept of starting a new religion. Again Happy New Years.