Fourth Annual One-Word Resolution Challenge

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I know New Year’s is two weeks out, but I think — hope! — that people will begin drifting away from their computers over the next few days. I know I will.

At any rate, time for the one-word resolution challenge. I had a good one and — no joke, see name of this blog — I forgot it. It was a really good one, too. Well, maybe I’ll remember it in time for 2012. Meanwhile, I’ve found a substitute:

BE.

Remember when Bill Clinton famously said it depends on how you define “is”? It’s an easy line to mock and I don’t think his intentions were particularly pure, but he was onto something. Spanish, after all, has two verbs for being, ser and estar, one used for matters of permanence, the others for more transitory states of being. What do we mean by is? What does it mean to be? Does it mean never thinking about the future? If so, I’m hosed because I don’t see how a working novelist can’t be looking down the road a bit. Plus, if you’re always in the moment, how do you make to-do lists and if you don’t make to-do lists, how do you get anything done?

Still, I could be better at being and I’ve been getting some valuable lessons in how to do it. So I’m going to try to be. I think there is a second word implicit in that, that deciding to be is also deciding to be happy as much as possible. Or at least content. Or, perhaps, content but with the awareness that our country, our world have some very serious problems. Or perhaps — well, you can see that BE, easy as it sounds, is no slam dunk for me.

I realize in the past two months this blog has been much quieter, as has the website. A resolution to BE doesn’t bode well for either of them, although when I write for the blog I am very much in the moment. Earlier this year, I won a copy of Hamlet’s Blackberry from Hank Stuever (Washington Post television critic, blogger, author of Tinsel, a delightful social history of Christmas) and the book has been hugely influential in how I think about my use of technology. I have adapted the practice of “Internet Sabbath,” although I still check e-mail. I have cut way back on the blogs I read. Perversely, I am on Twitter, although completely cloaked — trust me, you can’t find me — and I use that to follow many writers, bloggers, etc. because I find that to be the best source of things I’m genuinely interested in reading. But I seldom tweet and when I do, they are in-jokes meant for an audience of one, Mr. Lippman.

2010 was the best year of my life to date. Some of the reasons for that are personal, too personal even for this gabby, seemingly confessional blog. Professionally, I haven’t been shy about parading the things that made the year fun — a book that reached #11 on the New York Times bestseller list, despite being up some pretty big guns of August; some really stellar reviews and even some best-of lists (including the Washington Post, Sarah Weinman, the Seattle Times, Amazon and Stephen King’s round-up for Entertainment Weekly; an appearance on Craig Ferguson’s show, where Mr. Lippman was thrilled to hear the host describe my look as “naughty librarian.”

And yet . . my husband’s longtime friend and off-and-on collaborator David Mills died suddenly. Then my father-in-law. Then David Thompson. There were other deaths, too, and bad news for good people (hang in there, Paul). It was, in short, another year in the life of a privileged middle-aged woman living in a First World country in the 21st century.

I am going to put this entry down and go back into the archives and find my father’s column, the one I ran last year. That should be a tradition, too. And I’ll check the Clinton quote, which I asterisked because I was relying on my imperfect memory. (How bad is my memory? Well, about three weeks ago, I signed for a package, which subsequently went missing, which raised questions of whether I had signed for the package at all. I found it eventually, but no matter how many details I accrued — the date, etc. — nothing could shake loose a memory of signing for that package. To paraphrase a critic whose name has just flown out of my head**, you can’t remember everything — where would you put it? Wait — Stephen Wright. I think.

Meanwhile, please share your own one-word resolutions, if you are so inclined.

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31 thoughts on “Fourth Annual One-Word Resolution Challenge”

  3. Jeff,

    I believe we should all listen to our gut reactions. Over the years, I’ve told myself I’m a poor judge of character, but I think the more accurate assessment is that I’m reluctant not to give people, first, second, third chances and I am particularly susceptible to people who, having earned my enmity, go overboard trying to win me over.

    I just end up feeling stupider for giving such con artists a second chance.

  6. LOVE

    Others, myself. My job. My life. My world. My husband. My friends. My family.

    Last year, the word was EVOLUTION. I feel like I have evolved a bit, so maybe that works. For 2011, Love means being settled, content, complete, and confident in my decisions.

  7. ROLL

    Roll with the punches
    I must get new tires for my ride
    If I get on a roll, stay with it
    If not, keep rolling anyway, don’t shut down and stagnate

    At first I thought of FLOW, since it’s getting harder to go with it the older I get…takes a lot of resolve

    I like your Spanish rendition of BE…it’s always so deliciously confusing to decide if a particular state of being is permanent or transitory.

    It is comparatively quiet over here, but I’ve discovered it’s a place I want to come to go DEEP and GROW, rather than frolic in the shallows.

  9. ENJOY

    I find myself being too worried over things that aren’t going to make a bit of difference in a year, a month or possibly even in a week.
    So I’ll try to pay more attention to things (and people and situations) which bring Joy, and less to those which don’t.

  10. Last year’s was RECONNECT, which gets a mixed grade. This year will be EXHALE. The freelance situation seems to be calming down; the time for fiction writing (I hope!) will go up. The big move to a new apartment in a new neighborhood is over and done with. And even if other crises come up – as invariably, they will – remembering to breathe out should help a hell of a lot.

  15. APPRECIATE
    Mostly friends and family, the fact that my body is still operational, though not as well as it once did and for those who entertain and enlighten me with their writing.

  20. Exercise

    My health, if taken care of properly will lead to all the other things I want to do; and without it, I won’t be here to enjoy life. Oops – I havne’t worked out today . . . gotta break the tractor beam.

  22. MOVE

    I need to move more, to help maintain my body. And I need to move my household, to join my husband in Massachusetts. And I need to move away from the computer, where I often seem glued, with a variety of time-wasters.

  23. Focus.

    Last year it was energy-to get some. I’m giving myself a decent grade on that; although the first half of the year sucked on the energy front, I’m feeling pretty good about it now.

  25. Dianne said it – Focus. Forgive me if I didn’t spell it right. Possibly Live, but I don’t know if that’s meaningful enough to me to help me remember to FOCUS.

  30. I really like the short-n-sweetness of Laura’s word, and it’s inspired me in the right direction.

    My word for 2010 was REBUILD, based on the upheaval of my career. To that end, I started taking course toward certification in current skills.

    I made more plans than I carried out. Took more courses than actual exams. Started a few good efforts … but completed none of them.

    So the word for 2011 is … DO! As in, just DO it.

  31. EXPLORE

    I have been sitting on my duff for too long, both physically and metaphorically. This year I will explore my outer world by doing zip lines and getaways. My inner explorations, well, let’s just say I won’t run away from looking deeper, as I have in the past. My goal is to peel my onion down to the delicate white cone…next year I will tackle that.

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