new year positive affirmations and stuff

I don’t like resolutions, because they’re usually related to a negative behavior: “I will stop overeating…I will stop smoking…I will stop using so many ellispes…”

What I do like are positive affirmations; “I will drink more tea instead of pop; I will buy more local produce; I will replace ellipses with semicolons.”

I have been thinking about this a lot these past few weeks.  It makes little logical sense to choose an arbitrary date to begin a new thing.  I mean, why wait?  Truth is our lives are arbitrarily divided up for us, and there’s no reason to buck the system.

Last night the new Office Max family calendar was revealed, already starting to fill up with little phrases like “Darren to OR” and “Ian Trumpet 4:30.”  Wife 1.2 uses different colors for different phrases.  It’s filling up fast, and unless I get busy, the profound will be crowded out by the mundane.

No, this is not my calendar, nor is it the calendar of anyone I know. I can only hope it is fictitious, but I imagine it bears a striking resemblance to several in Alpine, Utah.  Especially the hearts because it’s February. Special.

So here are the things I want to get on the calendar before it fills up with things that someone else can do.

1)  Three overnight solo canoe trips.

I used to put these on the calendar and for a few years,  I held myself to them.  In 2009 I ended up cancelling a few because “things came up.”  In 2010, I didn’t even get them on the calendar.  Shame on me.  They’re going back on now.

It’s probably the single best thing for my brain, these solo trips.  It’s pretty exhausting sometimes for a guy with ADD to live in the complex, plate-spinning world of running my own business, balance family life, and fulfill church and other volunteer work responsibilities.  Frankly, I think it’s exhausting for everyone irrespective of their brain physiology.  That’s why there are so many metaphors: too many irons in the fire, too much on your plate, etc.

I like one iron in the fire.

On a solo canoe trip, my brain reverts to its simplest state.  I paddle, which is a form of kinetic meditation.  I prepare elaborate and illogically complex meals, another form of mindful practice.  I listen for sounds normally crowded out by the artificial cacophony of the mechanized world.  I look at the world around me with an artist’s eyes, looking for images, shapes or colors to be captured on film or its digital equivalent.

So good for me.  They’re going on the calendar.  Tomorrow during the first planning session of 2011.  Wife 1.2 is a planner, thank Buddha.

2)  I will take more pictures with film, using old, manual equipment.

A week or two ago I wrote about missing film.  That lead me to dig out some of my old film cameras and make sure they’re in good working order.  It also prompted a friend to loan me his 1948 Speed Graphic 4×5, complete with all the original stuff.  Talk about taking a step backwards: this is like programming a mainframe using punch cards.

There is, however, something good about programming with punch cards; you better pay attention or your job will either crash or completely drain your mainframe account with an endless while/do loop.  You need to be intentional and careful, and take the brain cycles necessary to observe.  A 4×5 forces you to do the same sort of introspection before releasing the shutter.  It also forces you to think because it costs about a buck just to take a picture, and that’s before developing.  If your exposure is off, you get a nice picture of an Antarctic whiteout or the inside of Mammoth Cave.

So the process is this:

1. See things, don’t just look at them.
2. If I see something cool, take a digital picture or two.  Or six.  See how it shakes out.
3. If the digital looks cool, pull out the Mamiya C330 Pro.  Take a shot or two.
4. If I get really excited, pull out the 4×5 and take a picture with that.

The idea of a snapshot has only been around since the Kodak Brownie came out.  Snapshots were generally about the subject matter, not about the composition, light, etc.  In other words, a hasty shot of your friends standing by a really cool old ’57 Chevy might be a bad picture, but it’s about documenting the people, not the experience.   That little camera democratized photography, but it changed the fundamentals of how people thought about photography.

I will be taking pictures that are not formally composed, hoping for a lucky exposure as I fire off  a burst at an eagle taking off with a fish in its talons.  That’s fine.  But with the film cameras, I will be forced to slow down, take a deep breath or six, and take my time.

3)  I will spend more time with my son.

Son 1.0 is a High School Senior (and about to be updated to Son 1.1 as soon as he finished his Eagle Scout project).  This means that his time in our home is limited.

This little dude is now 6’2.5″ and has to duck to get around in the basement.  I do not know how this happened.

4)  Date night with Wife 1.2 every two weeks.  On the calendar.

Self-explanatory, but I will explain it logically because it’s my essay/blogthingy and I can do whatever I damn well please.

Statement:  I am in love with Wife 1.2.
Assumption: People enjoy spending time with those they love.
Therefore: I enjoy spending time with Wife 1.2.

Furthermore:

Statement: There are competing priorities in life.
Assumption: All priorities can be placed in order from lowest.*
Assumption: Rational people put higher priorities before lower priorities.
Assumption:  Rational people put their highest priorities before anything else.
Assumption: I am rational (please suspend your judgement and disbelief).
Assumption: Nothing is more important to me than Wife 1.2.
Therefore: Dates with Wife 1.2 should be the highest priority.

5)  I will take lots of pictures of odonates.

Like this one.

Give me a break.  I needed at least one mulligan.

Respectfully submitted,

Canoelover

*  I put giving Dog 2.0 a bath way down on the list.  She hates it, I hate it. It moves up the list with rapidity in the case that she rolls in her own excrement.  Which she did last night.  I am still perplexed why an otherwise intelligent animal would do such a thing.  Then again…maybe Divine was on to something.