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The Best New Years Resolution
Good, Better, Best
Never let it rest,
Till your good be better
And your better best.
Guess its time for those new years resolutions again. If I were to take an unofficial survey of the top resolutions that people make for the new year, I would say weight loss would be the number one goal. Getting into better physical shape would probably be a second, saving more and spending less would probably rank high up there also. Whatever the case may it's always a pursuit of some way in which we want to be better. So we say I want to look better or be in better health by dieting, or I want to feel better and be a better competitor, so I will exercise, or again I want to have a better standard of living so I will handle my money better.
All these are worthy enough in themselves, they are all ways in which we want to be better. But this year my thoughts took another turn. What if I just stopped the phrase at the word better, as in: I want to be better. Yes, just simply better, Not, I want to be a better sales person, I want to look better and so on, but just simply better. What would that mean?
Well I think that when we just stop there, without qualifying what we want to be better at then we just mean we want to be a better person. Much like when we say, "Hey, that's a good man", we don't say, "What's he good at?" We implicitly know we are simply saying he is a good man. We know we are saying he is a man of good moral character. And that's what it seems we mean when we say I want to be better without saying what about. We just want to be a better man.
Like Mother Teresa. If we say Mother Teresa was really good, we don't ask, "What was she good at?" We are just saying she was a really good person. Or as some say when speaking of their fathers. He was a good man. We don't ask what he was good at. We mean he was a good man, a morally good man.
So for this year, to the extent that I might be good, I want to be better. Not better at something. Just better. And that is something we all know we can't rest at. To become more virtuous, morally better takes discipline, humility and hard work. More difficult than any material, social or financial goal to attain. So I won't let it rest, till my good be better and my better best. You too, be good, or gooder!
Happy New Year!
David
