Sharp County record., 1903-01-02
STARTING RIGHT,
The Custom OF Making Good New
Year Resolutions One OF Indef-
inIte aud Fortunate TOHnclty.

Unless there has been a marked
change in human nature during the
past year, as many people will begin
the new with a series of good, if not
actually new, resolutions rs began the
preceding year under similar condi-
tions. Not all Of these will sub
scribe to complete formulated con-
tract for improved behayior-the ma
iority, in fact, will re"Olve subcOn-
sciously. But the yearly making of
resolutions comes So pat with the be-
ginning Of fresh calendar on the first
of each succeeding January that the
custom has an indefinite and altCge tn
er fortunate tenacity.
1t has been often repeated that
the%e good resolutions are like glass
balls, in that they are made for the
sole purpose of being broken. The
figure shows an inadequate knowledge
of the uses Of glass balls; before
breaking they are intended to serve
a more useful purpose in training the
eye and hand Of u marksman. A good
resolution, even when broken, gives
mental training very much in the same
fashion. The process Of making it
and Of honestly trying to carry it out
is a long and necessary first step to-
ward the mental strength that makes
human being actually master of his
own actions. "A faculty for comfort,
for example, is pleasant thing to
carry on journey, but laziness is o
useless piece OF luggage.
Successful resolutions, all comic
writers to the contrary, are really
made on the first every January, but
they depend, like genuinely success
full politics, much more on common
sense than on emotional impulse. A
man who has been intemperate in his
own comfort-to keep to the one con-
crete example OF laziness, or TO its
even worse form, procrastination-
can hardly leap into activity and hold
the pace very long at time. He can,
however, divide his daily existence
into two parts, during one of which
he may bugiiy tie up the loose ends of
his occupa tiors, and during the other
devote himself to doing nothing with
all the success to lie expected Of his
past experience. Even if he fails in
the effort the attempt is something
toward a future success along TIE
same line Of endeavor. There is much
more reason to respect the man who
makes and breaks yearly set of res
olution2 than to respect the discour-
aged individual who gives up trying
after a few failures.
If the whole nation should start out
to keep the same resolution the real
value OF individual enGeayOr would
stand out more clearly, and the result,
one may he optimistic enough to be-
lieve, might prove revelation to
those who advance the broken glass
theory. There is the subject OF good
citizenship, for instance. We have re-
Gently seen, writes r. ". Bergeigren,
in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening
Post, in one case, the result that fol-
lows when whole community be-
comes vitality interested in its politics,
and in another the result that comes
from a merely conventional interest.
Suppose that every citizen in the coun-
try should resolve for one year to IN
dcrstand political questions, to think
for himself. and to act lip to his con-
victions. Even counting those who
fall by the wayside, the result might
bring back the generally informed po-
litical earnestnees of our first nation
al elections; and the actual power felt
by each man, in the strength Of his
own knowledge, might go far to re-
affirm that resolution universally on
the first OF next January