New Year's Eve

                            New Year's BLAST
 
            As 2020 reveals itself to us, I’d like to share some thoughts that were passed along to me during this holiday season.  There were a couple of lists entitled (8 or 9) Things to (Quit/Stop) in 2020 --- and I believe they are worth sharing --- apply as you see fit.

1. Stop fearing change
2. Stop trying to please everyone
3. Stop living in the past.
4. Stop Overthinking
5. Stop being afraid.
6. Stop sacrificing your own happiness.
7. Stop thinking you’re not good enough.
8. Stop thinking you have no purpose.
9. Stop contemplating and do it!

 
         Even better, my Brown Education Department colleague, Polly Ulichny,  sent a lovely Holiday greeting (which seems to have originated with a John Douglas in Charlotte, Vermont --- but I could be wrong about that).  I’m not going to include all the aphorisms that were written within the sketch of a Xmas tree but I’ll list the ones I think might be good for any/all of us to keep in mind in 2020.
 
This 2020:

• End a quarrel.
• Seek out a forgotten friend.
• Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust.
• Share some great treasure.
• Write a love letter.
• Give a soft answer.
• Encourage youth.
• Manifest your loyalty in word and deed.
• Keep a promise (or two, or more)
• Find the time!
• Forgo a grudge.
• Forgive an enemy.
• Listen.
• Apologize if you are wrong.
• Try to understand.
• Examine your demands on others.
• Think first of someone (everyone?) else.
• Appreciate.
• Be kind; be gentle; laugh a little.
• Laugh at yourself.
• Deserve confidence.
• Take up arms against malice.
• Express your gratitude..
• Welcome a stranger.
• Gladden the heart of a child.
• Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth --- and its inhabitants.

 
            That’s a lot, I know, and lord knows there are quite few items in the list that I will need to very consciously work on --- but I think I’ll keep those lists around to remind me how to try to be a better person in 2020.

            Finally, I’d like to finish with a quote from a documentary about Wynn Handman (the founder of the American Place Theatre) entitled “It Takes a Lunatic.”  Handman, a storied acting teacher, uses a Tolstoy quote to sum up his hope for himself as a teacher,  and it’s one I certainly subscribe to:

                                                                      You only die if you don’t live on in others.
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            With that, have a Happy New Year, and let’s hope 2020 is a year we will all look back on with positive memories.