By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
As the new year rolls around, some people are inspired to chart new courses for their lives. Some are approaching the start of 2020 with hopeful New Year’s resolutions – whether they last a day or a lifetime.
At the city building on Tuesday, Joe Fawcett, assistant municipal administrator, said he has stuck with his last year’s resolution of reducing his use of foul language.
“Well, I cut down, so I can still say it” – just more sparingly on special occasions when it can’t be avoided.
This year, Fawcett said he plans to resolve to improve his patience and understanding. Though, he was quick to add, “that’s generally an ongoing thing.”
Police Chief Tony Hetrick is more of a realist about the whole New Year’s resolution thing.
“Self-improvement is something you should think about all the time, not just at New Year’s,” the chief said. Besides, “I see so many people fail at them.”
Next door at the Wood County District Public Library, Elizabeth Roberts Zibbel, working at the front counter, said she is toying with adopting a resolution this year.
“I usually don’t, but I definitely want to get more organized this year,” she said. Not only does she have a closet full of clothes she no longer wears, but she is very aware that she can’t set double standards for her daughters.
“I feel bad telling them to clean up their rooms when I have a moat of clothes and books around my bed,” Roberts Zibbel said.
In the children’s section of the library, Cassie Greenlee, youth services assistant, has a formal plan for her New Year’s resolutions.
“I call them goals rather than resolutions,” she said. “Then it feels less bad if I break them.”
Greenlee did manage to adhere to her last year’s resolution of writing young adult fantasy everyday. So now she is bumping up that goal to writing a minimum of 100 words a day.
She is also planning to start “habit tracking,” by recording how often she performs such acts as reading, practicing piano and even washing dishes.
“I want to spend my time a little bit more productively and mindfully in 2020,” Greenlee said.
When asked about his past New Year’s resolutions, library Director Michael Penrod broke out into a long, loud laugh. Quite often his goal has been to lose weight.
“I do one every year. And it’s usually over by Jan. 4,” he said.
But his past year has brought a big change into Penrod’s life, so he is taking this next year’s resolution a little more seriously.
“Being a new parent, I’m trying to not worry about the stupid stuff,” he said.
“I’m just a logistics geek as a librarian. I worry about the stupid stuff that billions of parents have done,” like how to get his son ready and dropped off at daycare – and still make it to work on time.
Next door at the Wood County Senior Center, Joyce Campbell and Dotty Stump sat waiting for their New Year’s Eve lunch. The smell of sauerkraut cooking in the kitchen permeated the dining room.
These are women who have been through many New Year’s and many resolutions. Campbell (“like the soup”) and Stump (“like a cut off tree”) have also explained the spelling of their names for decades.
But neither felt the need to commit to a resolution this year.
“It’s up to God,” Campbell said. “I could lose weight. But everyone says that.”
Stump agreed that the effort was futile.
“I know I’m not going to keep it,” she said. “Besides, being a senior, we never know whether tomorrow’s going to come or not.”
The two were more focused on which of their friends were going to join them at their lunch table.
Back in the senior center kitchen, Executive Director Denise Niese was preparing to make the traditional “good luck” New Year’s meal of cornbread, sauerkraut and “hoppin john” – a dish made from black-eyed peas, ham, rice and onions.
Niese said she no longer makes New Year’s declarations.
“I don’t make resolutions anymore, simply because life changes and priorities change,” she said.
Niese also acknowledged some unsuccessful attempts in the past – like the year she vowed to stop eating fast food. “Then the first week of the year, I’m going through a drive-thru.”
While some people’s lives change in a given year because of new lives, others feel the absence of lives lost.
Jason Miller, manager of human resources at the senior center, said his resolution for 2020 is to spend more time with family and friends – living in the moment and realizing it could change at any time.
Miller lost his father this past year, but is comforted by the fact that he spent so much time with him this last year, going to a comic book convention and cooking together at his dad’s home in Mansfield. The father and son joined forces to cook special meals for every holiday they could.
As his dad was being cared for in a hospice program, Miller took bratwursts from Frobose Meat Market to Mansfield and held a final “tailgate party” for his dad at the facility.
“I’m just so thankful,” Miller said.
For many, “mindfulness” seems to be the goal for 2020.
David Kuebeck, director of fiscal and facility operations at the senior center, said he wants to work at being more present for what’s important and less distracted by what’s not.
That goes for work and home.
“I need to be more present for them also,” Kuebeck said of his three children. “I need to stop and smell the roses.”
But his effort at mindfulness was distracted by naysayers who know his work style.
“Have you seen his desk lately?” Niese said with a grin.
“You can’t find the roses,” Miller added.
Coming in for Tuesday’s New Year’s Eve lunch at the senior center, Lynn and Betty Wineland said they make and break the same resolution every year.
“Getting healthy. It’s something we do poorly every year,” Betty Wineland said.
But Lynn Wineland gave his stock answer that has never failed him in many new years.
“Every year it’s to quit smoking,” he said with a smile. “I’ve never smoked a day in my life.”
