An old year resolution and a day trip

A friend recently introduced me to the idea of old year resolutions: considering how you want to leave a year as well as, or instead of, how to begin it.

We had this conversation right before the holidays, and the old year resolution that came to my mind was this:

Make up stories about characters, not about the actions of others.

Of course, it’s a nearly impossible goal. So much of human interaction is based on guesswork and oracle-like acts of interpretation; why’d they say that, why’d they do that, don’t they know, didn’t they think? 

But I like my old year resolution as a reminder of where to focus my energy.

And the day trip: we went to the Mount Angel Abbey. I didn’t know much about it, except that my friends had been before and were enthusiastic about it, and described the abbey’s museum as a wunderkammer.

Indeed.

We got to talk for a while to the affable and erudite monk working in the museum. The words on his knuckle tattoos also serve as an appropriate resolution, old year or new: HOLD FAST.