Time Sucks; a New Year's Resolution

"Dost thou love life?  Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of." - Benjamin Franklin

I have done a lot of thinking over this past week, as we start a new year, a new decade even.  Several questions come to mind as I reflect back.  Where was I ten years ago?  Where has all of this time gone?   How far have I come in the last year, or last decade?  What were the most influential moments for me in the last decade?

I decided that perhaps I would write a year in review, or even a decade in review blog.  Lots of people do them.  You see them all over the tv, print, and internet.   The 10 best (insert something here) of the decade.   The 10 worst celebrity (insert word here) of 2009.    We are bombarded by these lists.  We debate these lists, and we even make our own silly lists.

Along with these top 10 lists of the past year/decade we also sit down and "resolve" to do something better next year.  Most of us resolve to go to the gym, or be more organized, or make more money, or just not have as bad a "year" as we just had.    We set several arbitrary goals, many of which don't last through the end of January.  When we fail these "arbitrary goals"  we then become like Cubs fans every season saying, "Maybe next year."   And so we go, around and around like a dog chasing its tail.

So, for my first blog of 2010, I could write a list of the top 10 things that influenced my last decade.  Things like my Master's degree, National Cathedral debut, Adams fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival, moving to Connecticut, getting divorced, 9/11, quitting singing, starting singing again, moving to Florida, meeting Sherrill Milnes, meeting Dave Brubeck, my first trip to Europe, etc.  I really wonder, what good does it do me to reflect back on the last decade?  Perhaps writing such a list is just a way to "waste time;"  time I could spend moving forward in this decade.

Wasting time!  Now there is a novel idea.  I wonder, do we make New Year's resolutions because we  "wasted time?"  Perhaps we have wasted so much in the last year, that now we have to resolve to not waste as much time in the future.  We waste time in a myriad of ways.  For me most of these things are just time sucks.  Little things that we do during the day that, before we know it, have accumulated into big chunks of time.   When you have too many time sucks in your life, they become like leaches, sucking the life right out of us.  I know I have several of these time sucking leaches.  My most recent one is revisiting Farmville on my Facebook account.

I try to live my life by the motto of "I may not be rich, but I live a rich life."   It is a credo that most of us that are artists can agree on.   Last night I was talking to my sister on the phone and I mentioned that I might resolve this year to ask myself the following question before I do something:  "How does this help me get to Germany?"  Having slept on it, I think this question might actually be too specific.   I really need to look at my New Year's resolution in terms of two things, living a rich life...and you guessed it limiting time sucks.

A better resolution for me then might better be phrased;  "How does this help me live an even richer life than I have today?"

Yes, we all need our down time or our entertainment.   I am not going to cut off the baseball or college basketball completely, but I do need to realize that sitting there for 8 hours on a Sunday afternoon when I could be productive is not just a recharge, it is just a time suck.  Playing Mafiawars, Fishville, Farmville, Cafe World, Farkle or some other mind-numbing game on Facebook doesn't really help me live a rich life at all.  These games just leach away at my time.  Even things that are viewed at speeding up your life like eating crappy fast-food is a time suck.  The food is lousy and makes you fat and less productive, and then you have to waste time and energy trying to lose the weight that you put on because of it.   Even accumulating piles of "stuff" to clutter my life is a time suck too....

Ok, I could go on and on, but speaking of piles, I have a couple I should work down tonight, so that I can lead a richer life!  Leading a richer life...this time my New Year's resolution doesn't suck.