Resolutions

January 1st, 2008 by Jen

It’s the new year, and I suppose those of us who are raised in this culture can’t help themselves but to think about what they can do to make this year better than the one that just ended. We do this in spite of the fact that making resolutions rarely accomplishes what we are resolving to change. So, if we’re thinking about what we’d like to change, what would be a better way to do that? When I put the question to Spotted Eagle, true to form, he directed me to the origins of the word, resolution. (This is always an education, and I never ceased to be amazed at the metaphorical teachings that can come from such a simple exercise.) It turns out that resolution is really about solving something, and if we trace back the roots of the word solve, we find an Indo-European root that meant to loosen or to pay, as in paying a debt. Now, wouldn’t that be a switch! Resolutions, after all, are usually about restricting something, like going on a diet, or spending less money. Suppose we started thinking of a New Year’s resolution as a something that loosens the restrictions of our old thinking. Something that satisfies whatever energetic debts we think we owe and must pay before we can move forward in resolving our persistent problems. Suppose we shifted our perspective and started thinking about how we might go about solving a problem that has resisted our most sincere efforts to resolve it. It strikes me that, if we were to do that, we could begin a process of transformation that would have a much better chance of succeeding.