eds NY message: How to, and not to, bring about a New Year
This is the last day of 2012, so before i go to celebrate to bring in the new year, i want to tell you my wish for you in 2013....
May peace break into your home and thieves steal you debts. May the pockets of your jeans be a magnet for money. May love stick to your face like vaseline and laughter assault your lips. May happiness slap you across the face and your tears be those of joy. May your problems forget your home address!
In simple words (from an obviously simple mind), may 2013 be the Best Year of Your Life!
No. The above aren’t ed’s words, or i might be inclined to slap myself across the face with my silver-heeled boots....
I can imagine the many people who don’t bother about politics; steer clear of socio-political education and debate; who can’t be bothered to be empathetic across the borders of difference, communities, races, and nations; whose best responses that they can muster in the face of insight that contradicts their simple-minded view of nature is clicking on a ‘like’ button.........
None of these so-called ‘adults’ would bother considering the possibility of their being a part of the problem which they hope to wish away with such devoutly asinine ‘wishes’ and ‘greetings’.
What we need, people, are collective strategies to bring about happiness, to get rid of debt, to bring about peace, and so on. The word here is 'collective'. Our interests and impact is intertwined. Mutual empathy, compassion, interest, viewing each other as our extended family, socio-political education and participation, is that which is going to make our New Year wishes true, as opposed to an insult to our intelligence.
Hence, the ed meister’s New Year message is just this....
I prefer New Year Strategies instead of New Year Wishes. With the latter, the intention is good, but it is the former that gives it a higher chance of becoming true. :)
Think well, and for the collective good, despite all illusory boundaries, and prosper. Do otherwise, and you’ll have little to depend on but such greetings, that truly make every new year, another rendition of the old.
(To summarise the above article another way.....There are 2 kinds of New Year Strategies.
At the individual level, it means to go beyond resolutions and come up with detailed strategies on how to achieve what is worthy of achieving.
At the collective level, it means that we have to realise that when we think and act as and for the collective, we will be able to deliver prosperity and peace to others and ourselves and not at the expense of others for ourselves. The system is structured such a way to ensure that we cannot do good for ourselves without harming others. That's got to change.)
Get your thinking and collective caps on, and thus, a Happy New Year to you.
Go with God.
Amen
ed
Happy New Year, Ed!
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I like the new layout of your site. It is more organised and I especially like to see a picture associated to each of your article – nice work!
Probably one of the reasons why there are more than 1,200 people clicking on a ‘like’ button (in the post by Sarcastic Sweetness) is their way to avoid thinking about what they each want to achieve in the new year and that could be due to many actually going through the annual ritual of failure associated with New Year’s resolutions. This is quite a typical behaviour that I personally find in most Chinese that I know.
I totally agree with your views on New Year Strategies versus New Year Wishes. How many of us have a glance back at the year in end December, acknowledge a few things in our life that are not as good as we would like and then promise ourselves we will try and improve and every year we fail. With strategy, it gives it a higher chance of our goals becoming true. I am sure most employees know exactly what to do at work but don’t actually apply the same concept in their personal arenas.
Ed, you are indeed a rare individual that most of us need to copy from. J Well, when any persons, if ever, get to setting their goals, they would only consider how to achieve the goals for themselves and hardly concern how to extend the benefits of their goals to others. However, I personally like your idea of the two levels – individual and collective when setting strategies. We should not be achieving our goals at the expenses of others. It seems like a basic thing to know but how many of us actually think about this and apply during goal-settings.
Thanks – I have learned my first lesson in 2013!
Cheers