Word

Word up. One of the big things most people learn as they leap from kidhood to grownuphood is how important one's word become. By 'word' I mean promise or expression of commitment, and by grownuphood I mean how mature we become whatever age it may happen. As kids in school we make promises to get good grades, be nice and do out homework on time. We generally break all these promises without much worry. Carefree and fancyfree, we may have been (some of us still are). As we grow up, more responsibilities we take on and our promises mean a lot more. Like with school at higher levels. We get more serious about things and life. Commitments become more focused and in some cases, profound and less tangible. Like with commitments to loved ones and better halves. As we work, we are held to our simple promise of the terms of our employment, between worker and boss, between colleagues, between clients and vendors. "I'll send you the files later" means exactly that. Yet so often nothing holds true. Promise broken. We move on.

What I've come to believe at this ripe old age, is that the most important promises one can make are to oneself and to a child. Oneself because when you break a commitment to yourself, it is a regret that you bear. Rectifying it should be easy but hardly we think about how we may have let ourselves down. A simple example is the commitment to exercise, a promise that's simple to ignore. When the doc later prescribes the cholesterol meds, it'll be "damn I wished I had started running last year".

To a child because that's how they learn about keeping commitments. I told my sis if she's announced to her son, my nephew, that they're going to the beach on the weekend, they'd better go. I don't want him to miss out because some parent decides he/she is feeling lazy and takes a rain check on a commtment. Not good for the kid. I enforce the idea of a promise when I let the little tyke run around the house, if he 'promises' not to make a mess. Else it's a time out in the cradle.

A good resolution for the year is to stop feeling like crap and keep your word, to family, friends and to yourself.