Unlike christmas, kwanzaa, chanukah (sp?), saturnalia, and boxers day, I think the New Year is a holiday to celebrate. It marks the end of a year of joyous conversations, new and old friendships, getting stuff done (hopefully), and the continued expansion of our mind. Yeah, I suppose there's some negative stuff that has happened, but compared with the joy of living and all the good stuff that has happened and will continue to do so, why dwell?

So, in celebration of this annual event, I am going to make a resolution. I know I'm not disciplined enough to tell myself it's for the whole year, so I will see if I can't make it for a month first and then move forward from there.

My resolution is that I will no longer be using words that, while in the english language, have absolutely no meaning. This includes the following list:

Hell, heck (since it's a derivation of hell in the attempt at being polite!?), spirit - even if it's alcoholic, ghost, god, jesus, soul - unless it's the fish or while talking about motown music, etc.

Instead I will describe these false concepts for what they really are. For example, god would be something like, "the self-reinforcing delusion that people have designed to eschew responsibility for their actions and explain things that have no explanation because they cannot conceive of the possibility that there is knowledge they do not have".

Or maybe it'll be a little shorter.

And of course, I'm always looking for suggestions of words to add to the list.

Idoni