Some people may find comfort in amassing large positive numbers in their personal checkbooks, but as things become more complex in my life, I find that there is something very freeing about getting to zero in other areas.
Who hasn't, just prior to embarking on a journey, felt a low-tech sense of glee pushing the reset button on the car's trip-meter, watching as the numbers roll back to zero?
Over the past few years I, like many other writers, have enjoyed extolling the virtues of New Year's resolutions. But as I eavesdrop on people engaging in this beginning-of-the-year ritual, the conversation is much grander, loftier, than in years past.
Gone from most conversations this year are talks about forsaking bad habits like drinking, smoking or my personal favorite, beginning a health routine that will turn back the clock to a pre-college waistline.
Instead, people seem a bit more optimistic at the start of this new decade, making broad proclamations of hope in spite of the harrowing headlines that fill the newspapers. Getting to zero -- erasing the numbers of the past -- can offer a hope that is often lost throughout the decade while life has its way with us.
The past decade was one that was filled with its fair share of bad news, but it also contained many advances including beautiful thinking that has led to huge leaps in our society. These advances have ranged from discoveries in medicine, to how we work, to new methods in news gathering, to a very personal and yet simple (albeit controversial) web platform that used socializing and organizing as a way to bring the world closer together. This platform can now be affectionately used as a verb: Facebooking.
And lest one think these leaps are unique, history has a way of reminding each generation that even during the worst of times and under the most dire circumstance, the human spirit still clings to the fact that in our hearts, there is always hope. Such feelings can be found in the most unlikely of places and can transfer beyond the confines of a decade.
As we stand at the beginning of our new decade, the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre opens its 2011 season with an updated version of "The Diary of Anne Frank" -- a dramatic play based on the diary of a young Jewish girl who, along with her family, hid in an attic to avoid discovery and extermination by the Nazis during World War II.
While Anne was hidden away during one of the darkest periods in human history, she understood the danger of the times, but she was also able to look beyond this world and rise above it, writing beautiful, honest prose that resonates with readers more than 60 years later.
Although her story ends tragically, her writing lives on and is a strong reminder of the good we are still able to accomplish in our lives.
So, as we zero out and begin our new decade, I want to start my year with an Anne Frank inspirational quote:
"We have many reasons to hope for great happiness, but . . . we have to earn it. And that's something you can't achieve by taking the easy way out. Earning happiness means doing good and working, not speculating and being lazy. Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction."
Let the great work begin within us and in our community. Beginnings are exciting times.
The Future Needs All of Us (to create the future)
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
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