Hilltowns Senior News for Thursday, December 29, 2016

Happy New Year! What high hopes! What determination! What impossible expectations!

Somewhere in that emotional stew lies real life. There are so many “easy” answers to our dilemmas, but most of them are either simplistic or just plain wrong.

Yes, you can start your year over again at any point; you can start your day, or your life over. The whole point of many baptism and initiation rituals is to mark a separation point between the me-that-was and the me-that-will-be. To give us a new, clean sheet to write on.

This is noble, and wonderful, and I imagine that, for some rare people, it really does wipe out the past. What I suspect is that those ceremonies give us a point from which we can see the real possibility of change. We deliberately loosen our ties to the past, and decide to re-frame our view of it. By changing how I look at it, I can change the size and weight of my historical baggage.

Most of the time it’s a process, not an epiphany. I am not Saul on the road to Tarsus, or Buddha under the Bodhi tree. Nor am I that LSD-inspired kid in the sixties who looked at the flower, said “This is the answer!” and then ate it.

Everyday life is less clear; sometimes it’s absolutely murky. Events and attitudes from the past sneak out and bite us in the hand just as we are reaching for something new. We are, to some extent, the product of our experiences.

The problem, and the blessing, of the past is that it is the past. Every task completed or goal achieved may not be accompanied by the roar of the crowd like a high-school touchdown. But neither will every person we meet beat us down like a mentally-damaged parent. Not everyone needs to climb on the backs of their fellow beings.

Shades of gray aren’t any good as guideposts, but I get to choose what my markers will be. The impact of events or emotions does not have to be permanent.

Going forward, no one is actively trying to kill me like they were in ’Nam, or Iraq. No one is likely to carry me off the field on their shoulders, either.

I may resent the fact that I’m no longer precocious, and that I can’t blame everything on my childhood, but the future doesn’t have to be an endless film loop of my past. I can decide, on a moment-to-moment basis, how much of that baggage I want to drag around.

Do I get to jettison the whole shebang and start over with no memories and no regrets? Barring a major head injury, probably not. But I can step out into each new phase conscious of the past, but not ruled by it.

It’s still there, but it is the past. I can’t change it. I can change how I look at it, but it is over. The only direction I can go is forward, and, with a little luck and a tailwind, I can make the future different.

Happy New Year!
 

Coming up

January is National Polka Music Month, Oatmeal Month, National Hot Tea Month, National Mail Order Gardening Month, National Braille Literacy Month, and the beginning of Carnival Season.  The week of the 1st -7th is Celebration of Life Week, Diet Resolution Week, and Someday We'll Laugh About This Week.  Copyright Law Day, Ellis Island Day, Polar Bear Plunge or Swim Day, and World Day of Peace are all on the 1st.

The 2nd is Happy Mew Year for Cats Day, National Buffet Day, and National Science Fiction Day.  National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day is the 3rd, and the 4th is Dimpled Chad Day, Trivia Day, and the Earth at Perihelion.  Epiphany or Twelfth Night is the 6th. January 7th is Fruitcake Toss Day, Harlem Globetrotter's Day,  International Programmers' Day, and National Tempura Day.

If you’re running low on shrimp or veggies for tempura day, the senior shopping bus’s next trips are scheduled for Jan. 11 and 25.  Call CDTA at 437-5161 two days in advance to arrange for pickup.

We also have transportation to and from lunch! Just tell Linda Hodges when you call with your reservation.

Does your book club, Canasta group, or quilting circle need an easy place to meet? Why not meet at the Senior Center? Come have lunch with us, and then get together with your friends! There’s plenty of space, and the center is open for all of us. We already have games, dominoes, and cards after lunch on Mondays and Tuesdays, so join us!

Menu

Doors open at 11 a.m. at the Berne Senior and Community Center, and lunch is served promptly at noon.

— Monday, Jan. 2, closed;

— Tuesday, Jan. 3, chili con carne, spinach, corn bread, apple crisp, and milk; and

— Friday, Jan. 6, griller muenster cheese on wheat bread, tomato soup, coleslaw, apple juice, brownie, and milk.

Please call Linda Hodges 24 hours in advance to 872-0940 to reserve lunch, or email her at: , or sign up when you come in.Tell us how many are coming, your name, and your telephone number. If you’d just like to come and help out, give Mary Moller a call at 861-6253, or email her at , and put “volunteer” in the subject line. The senior and community center is located at 1360 Helderberg Trail in Berne.