Dear Editor: A Clean Slate

Dear Editor,

It’s that time of year again; the time for New Year’s Resolutions. Time for all the “New Year, new me” promises we make to ourselves. It IS that time of year. Yes, in fact, what better time to make those promises, those resolutions? Aren’t we basically starting with a clean slate, in this new year that’s opening before us? Isn’t that what we’ve been told from day one?

Looking at it like we’re getting a fresh start is not altogether a bad thing, I guess, but is it really a fresh start?! Can it truly be said that we’re writing on a clean slate?

I guess it depends on one's understanding of a clean slate.

The IRS definitely is not going to just hand you one, especially if you owe back taxes!

Unless you’re one of the fortunate ones; no one, for that matter, that you owe money is going to simply forgive your debt, just because it’s a new year.

No, for the majority of us, no matter how hard we try to change our situation for the better, within the first week or so, we’re still dealing with the same old bull$#!& in the same way we’ve always dealt with it. It doesn’t have to be that way!

The problem that the majority of us run into is that we try to change our situation before we change ourselves! Whether because of time constraints (real or imagined), it may often seem that we don’t have time to work on ourselves while the world goes to hell around us. But then we must ask ourselves, can we fix our world BEFORE we fix ourselves? ( I’ll give you a hint: the answer is akin to the old adage, “you can’t love anyone else unless you love yourself!”)

Clean slate? Yes, but no one can give us one unless we first give it to ourselves!

Charles Haddon Shank

Whitehall, Montana