I went for a walk this morning. Yes, I'm now one of those people who walk as exercise. You've seen us around, us walking adults. I'm not the one in the track suit though and I never will be.
It was a long walk- around 4 miles, and during it I thought about death. Not exactly death, but the dissociation of molecules. I thought about this because I found an old potato in the back of my car. It was still recognizably a potato, but it had obviously been sitting on the floor of the rear seat for some time. When I found the potato I picked it up and tossed it under the car and as I walked, with neither the car nor potato to consult, I began to mull its fate.
I presumed that the potato had been or was in the process of being eaten by some thing or things. It was in the city, which probably limits the possibilities to pigeons and rats, with perhaps some ants mixed in if it was warm enough. Either that or it was simply decaying. In any event, it was quickly or gradually ceasing to be a potato. This led me to think about my own decay. Not so much my current state of decay, aka getting older, but the decay that would take place after I was no longer alive.
I didn't really go into what the meaning of my life has been. That's not really for me to judge and I'm not living to create a legacy. I thought more about the significance of consciousness. Not the nature of consciousness, I'll leave that to philosophers to argue over to no apparent effect. But the significance of my having been more or less conscious for the past 58 years. But even this seemed too deep for a morning walk to the drug store, so I began thinking about New Year Resolutions instead.
Honestly, I think picking a date to make resolutions is kind of dumb. I prefer to make my resolutions when I think I have a chance of keeping them. It's fine for me to say that I want to lose 5 pounds (actually, 4.6 pounds based on the scale this morning), but it's silly for me to try to do that during the winter when it's so much easier when the weather is nice and I can burn off 3000 calories a week riding my bike.
Looking forward into 2014 isn't a bad idea though. I start the year healthy for the first time in several years. I'm really enjoying my job and my family. But resolutions are just not really my thing. It's not like I never plan anything. Travel-type things I plan all the time and I'm pretty good at it, but on a more personal level I prefer to deal with things as they come. I have that luxury because my life is pretty gentle and I'm pretty resourceful.
But in the spirit of the season, here are my resolutions, in no particular order:
- Get a new dog- Maybe something small and yappy
- Learn to use the food processor- I cook/prepare food pretty frequently, but I have never once even tried to do anything that involved a food processor. Maybe I'm scared of it, maybe its just the name. I suspect there are Youtube videos about how to use them.
- Be more like Beyoncé- Because honestly, wouldn't everyone like to be more like Beyoncé?
- Learn to do this- Or maybe learn to do something else instead
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