Every Day Being a New Year’s Day
Thursday, January 1st, 2009Published in The Washington Times on New Year’s Day one year ago, this op-ed by Ed Hudgins is a timely reminder to us all that we need not wait until the new year, or next season, or next month, or even next week to enact our resolves. If you discover a goal worth doing, do it today, every day. In relation to one’s life as a whole, every day ought to be a New Year’s Day.
With human action being always occuring in time, I would only add that, with respect to the virtue of integrity, if its measure is the gap between our thoughts and our actions, then for sure, it is measured in moments, not in days, weeks, or months; and, with respect to the virtue of honesty, if it is to be an enduring commitment, then being true to one’s stated ends entails following through to seeing truth to those means constituting them. Herein, we learn two facts, two practical requirements, for successful living: on the relationship between means and ends, “the ends … are constituted in the means.” And on the relationship between virtues and values, the virtues are instrumental means to one’s values. If you want to live, make it happen, now.