ShareThis
by Fred C. Wilson III
January 1, 2011
“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better person.”
-Benjamin Franklin-
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
When I was a kid one of the things I remember most about New Year’s Eve was the shooting that took place outside our window. Every year around 11:45 PM Mom made us hide under our bed so we wouldn’t get shot by any stray bullets that used to pepper the neighborhood on New Year’s Eve. When we’d wake up the next morning we’d hear stories from neighbors about people who got shot and killed by stray (some intentional) bullets. The shooting would start a few minutes before midnight, increase in frequency and become a thunderous crescendo of small gunfires shortly before and after 12 AM. Sometimes the shooting would last until 1 AM or beyond. During the ‘festivities’ outside some shooters would shout “Happy New Year!” as they shot up alleys, blasted stray dogs, put bullet holes in walls and people’s homes. The tell tale ‘pock-pock-pock’ sounds made from gunfire, the faint crunching noises made as windowpanes shattered, the loud painful yelps from stray animals as they went down to their deaths under a hail storm of gunfire provided us with more than enough ‘entertainment’ for one evening.
FIL-AM NEW YEARS
Back home, Filipinos regularly open the New Year in similar fashion with lots of shooting. Unlike their more demonstrative ‘cousins’ back home, Fil-Ams are a quiet lot January 1st. Fil-Ams in their eagerness to imitate all things white American spend that day watching football games, eating, entertaining, a little drinking and doing other mundane things your average American does as the new year rolls in. As a non-Filipino I think I would enjoy spending at least one New Year’s Eve back home to experience how it’s done over there. I’ve always found the ceremonies, celebrations, and traditions of the Philippines entertaining, colorful, and at times thought-provoking. The year 2010 was a good one but it wasn’t easy. None of them are. It was a real challenge and I’m glad it’s over.
There are many New Year’s customs unique to the Filipino experience. The overwhelming majority of our readers are Filipinos so why waste valuable page space on stuff they already know? Aforementioned Filipino-Americans celebrate the coming of the new calendar year pretty much the same as everybody else preferring to leave all the elaborate rites, rituals, and rigmarole comfortably back home, rightly or wrongly as relics of an often stark, increasingly distant, and uncomfortable past.
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Goal setting is important. Most folks I know make New Years’ resolutions on January 1st. Despite our best efforts we, fragile human beings, rarely stay the course of self-improvement/correction for any appreciable length of time but still we try. Reader, here’s a short list of worthwhile goals:
• WEIGHT LOSS: Every year I promise to lose 50 pounds. This year I lost 30 plus pounds only to finish 2010 weighing a rotund 325 lbs. the same ‘tonnage’ I weighed-in last year’s New Year’s Day. This year, GOD willing, I pledge to treat people better starting with the big guy in the mirror and lose weight.
• CONTINUING EDUCATION: Another promise I made for 2011 is to reenroll in school to study Intermediate Drawing and or Printmaking. Last year court and doctor visits curtailed any plans for me continuing my education. In the meantime I suggest that if you want to advance or enhance your career go back to school. If you’re retired like me maybe you may want to consider earning spare cash by teaching adults. I’m told the Chicago City Colleges Continuing Education program is willing to pay you to teach seniors. Go check them out preferably in person. While on line contacts may be convenient person-to-person is far better.
• IMPROVED RELATIONSHIPS: Developing better family relations are another goal you should seriously consider. None of us are getting any younger. We are not our own. We don’t own our families and friends. They’re on loan to us. Each day we should enjoy and treasure their blessed presences; for we know neither the day nor the hour when they will be snatched from our lives.
• EXERCISE: I can’t think of few things that I hate the most than exercise (except dieting). I dread gyms, treadmills, stationery bikes, and all forms of self-torture. Whenever I have a nightmare the usual scenario takes place in somebody’s gym. Find an exercise that could be considered fun. Before my left leg gave out four years ago I was a long distance speed walker. Find an exercise that’s mostly fun and turn it into a hobby.
• ENTREPENEURSHIP: When I started Harmony International, Inc. on May 15th 1982 I had just recently filed for Bankruptcy, went through an IRS audit, was on the verge of losing my career, my ex-wife was suing me, after consulting three physicians I was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the throat and was given three to six months to live. I was on my way out. But GOD has a way of working all things out for our good. With a five dollar bill in my pocket, I went to the County Building and purchased a Cook County business license. I started my very own business! Since then that business has helped thousands throughout the world people whose stories were just as bleak as mine. BECOME AN ENTREPENEUR! Do something you’ve always wanted to do but never had the guts to do it and go for it! DO-IT-NOW!! The clock is ticking. Better a ‘has been’ than a ‘never been.’
• SPIRITUAL IMPROVEMENT: I call this part of the article the ‘Bible and Beads’ segment. Through my years of writing for MegaScene I’ve always placed heavy emphasis on spirituality. Reader, I don’t have to tell you, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 50 years, religion and most things spiritual have been taking some heavy hits these days with disastrous results for our society. There’s a whole lot to be said for the ‘back to GOD’ movement. Addictions, mental breakdowns, high crime, immorality are all indicative of society and lives gone bad. Whatever religion (or no religion) you may have Reader, you, me, every one of us has got to get to KNOW GOD personally, genuinely love our neighbors, and have good mental health so as to love ourselves properly; if you don’t it’s all for naught.
NEXT WEEK
The buying and selling of human being for sex and organ transplantation, as slave laborers is a multi-billion dollar global enterprise. Slavery is alive and well in the Philippines. Next week we’ll enter the dark world of human trafficking in the Philippines. Till then GOD be with you, stay warm and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
(vamaxwell@yahoo.com)