Simplicite, Frugalite, Clarte*

 *with apologies to those for whom lack of proper accent marks is a pet peeve. I'm too lazy to switch my keyboard settings.Please just imagine they're there...

That, wrapped up in a classic tripartite motto nutshell, is my New Year's Resolution. For all you language buffs, it is a form of hendiatris. No, I didn't know that before Googling it. I'm not that smart. And yes, I did rip off its form and cadence from the French national motto, "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite", which has long been one of my favorites.

Specifically, I'm hoping that a little simplicity and frugality will bring about a bit of clarity in 2013. And I figure that as far as New Year's resolutions go, it sounds a lot more enlightened - if equally doomed -  than "go on a diet." Which I've also pledged...

So, simplicity and frugality in all things (except perhaps shotguns, dogs, bird hunting, fly-fishing and books) is my personal mantra this year, and I will try mightily to jettison all sorts of thing, ideas, assumptions, expectations, jealousies, wants, and activities that run counter to it.

It's not a new process. The past few years I have been slowly disabusing myself of many previously-held notions and beliefs. Some of them are youthful personal notions, beliefs and goals that haven't held up to reality, the passage of time and the admittedly slow acquisition of wisdom, while others are more societal or tribal in nature, but no less stupid-seeming to me these days.

But since 2012 came and went and we're all still here, I figured 2013 would be a good year to finally try to jettison the lot of them. Because you just don't know what the future holds, Apocalypse-wise, and it'd really suck to experience the end of the world so un-self-actualized.

Oh, I do have some less-nebulous personal and professional resolutions. I want to try to write on this blog more often, and I recognize that I'm absolutely terrible at replying to comments. I'd like to improve the frequency and quality of both (it's not that I'm a dick, really. I just forget...). I have a number of other personal goals of no interest to anyone but myself. Most relate to fish I will never catch, or birds I will never hunt, or places I will never see, or things I will never experience. Such is life.

In addition to personal simplification, I plan on jettisoning some professional assumptions, expectations and desires that are unobtainable (and don't seem so important any more, anyway) and get back to doing what I really like, which is writing.

We'll see how it goes. Hell, maybe I should have just stuck with the diet...