My View from the Pilot house By Mike Boys Pilot News Consultant
It seems that here in the U.S. the New Year’s ball falls smack dab in the middle of winter. Winter is tough enough when most of us can’t rouse ourselves to clean our houses, change air filters, light bulbs, etc., etc., etc., much less make an ambitious, life-changing resolution to guide us through another year. BUT, if you are the type who likes to ring in the New Year with a long (or short) list of resolutions . . . more power to you.  Read on for some suggestions, hints, stories, etc.

So, pour yourself a cup of kindness, sit back, relax and enjoy.

Why do we make New Year’s resolutions?
The tradition of writing down New Year’s Resolutions goes way back to 153 BC. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome, was placed at the head of the calendar and so the first month was named after him. Being two-faced Janus could look back on past events and look forward to the future. He became the symbol for resolutions and many of the Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before beginning the New Year.
The New Year hasn’t always begun on Jan. 1, and it doesn’t begin on that date everywhere today.  It begins only in the cultures that use a 365-day solar calendar. So Jan. 1 became the beginning of the New Year in 46 BC, when Julius Caesar developed a calendar that would more accurately reflect the seasons than previous calendars had.
A New Year’s resolution is a commitment that we make to ourselves on the first day of the year to do a project or reform a habit, a lifestyle change etc.
There are religious parallels to this secular tradition.  For example, in Judaism’s holiest holiday, Yom Kippur, one is to reflect upon one’s wrongdoings over the year and both seek and offer forgiveness. The concept, regardless of creed, is to reflect upon self improvement annually.
 
Here are a few New Year Resolution tips:
• Look for ways of inspiring others —this is the first principle of inspiring yourself.
• Look to today – forgetting yesterday’s mistakes, avoiding tomorrow’s anxieties.
• Look for and give loyalty – every person has strength with God. Build that strength and you will be aided in rising above weakness.
• Look for the best each day in people, in plans, in things.
• Look for tasks and people larger than yourself. You soon will be accomplishing more and serving better.
• Look to grow in faith.
• Look to honor one’s heritage.
• Start each day with a smile and share your smile with others.
• Let love light the way.
• Make good friends and be one.
• Be helpful and cheerful to your fellow workers.
• Be ever learning.
• Honor one’s parents.
• Remember loved ones.
Some of these resolutions are easier to live up to than making demands on yourself you don’t like.  Anyway I hope these help you through the New Year. I don’t know who the author of this piece is, but I do want to share it with you:
New Year’s Ambition
“This coming year I’d like to be a friend to everyone; I’d like to feel each day well spent at setting of the sun; I’d like to know that I have done at least one kindly deed before I lay down to sleep, that I have given heed to someone’s cry for sympathy or friendship, or that I have made the day seem brighter to some passerby, ant that the world is better still in just some little way, because I’ve tried to live the very best I could each day.”
 
May you all have a HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!
 
POP QUIZ: Whose birth name was Nathan Birnbaum?  A star of stage, screen, radio and TV.
 
Answer to last Pop Quiz:  The question was: There are two Christmas Islands in separate oceans: In which oceans are they situated? Answer: Pacific and Indian.
 
Well, that’s it for now . . . so until next time . . . this is my view from the Pilot house.

Mike Boys is a lifelong Marshall County resident, former newspaper owner and former public officeholder. The dictionary defines a Pilot House as “an enclosed area on the bridge of a ship, from which the vessel is guided.” His views, opinions and news appear occasionally on the Pilot News Opinion page.