From the Editor

The Measure of a Year

The song Seasons of Love from the musical Rent begins with the following verse:

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes
How Do You Measure - Measure A Year?
In Daylights - In Sunsets
In Midnights - In Cups Of Coffee
In Inches - In Miles
In Laughter - In Strife

Exactly, how do we measure a year? Is it four seasons? Twelve months? Three hundred sixty five days? Or as the song says, five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes?

The end of the year and the beginning of another offers a logical opportunity to look back on the successes and failures of the past year and to contemplate those “resolutions” for the upcoming year. It’s easy to write some simple goals on a sheet of paper, yet it is hard to make meaningful changes. Here are my resolutions for 2008.

Read. I’m not talking the sports pages here. I’m talking about the classics, history, words that define the richness of our society.

Listen. There is much to learn by listening to others, even if you disagree.

Write. I have found few things I enjoy more than sitting down at the computer and writing. My mind is full of ideas. This is the year to put them on paper.

Help. Our community has needs and many of those needs can be addressed by volunteering.

Finish. It’s difficult sometimes to follow through on something to the very end. My resolution this year is to leave no task incomplete.

Develop. Like writing, my mind is full of ideas. Like a chess game, I have spent this past year moving pieces into place for what I hope are some fun and exciting projects ahead.

These may not seem like monumental goals, but by achieving these six things, I feel like I will be a more complete person living life to its fullest. For me, the daylights, the sunsets, the midnights and the cups of coffee are pleasures of life, not measures of life. The miles run and the laughs are things I am thankful for and fortunate to have.

I welcome 2008 with its challenges and its rewards. I can’t see the future. However, if I can read, listen, write, help, finish, and develop for the next five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, I will have a wonderful story to tell on the eve of 2009.

--Greg Hill