...because they are so damned hard to keep. If a resolution is worth keeping, I think it's worth doing no matter what time of year it is. As if the fact of tacking up a new calendar should be motivation to keep a promise.

It's like the old Yiddish joke about the town mohel's odd storefront decoration: a bare window, with only a clock. When asked why he kept a clock in his front window, the mohel replies, "well, what should I put there?" Good question.

Anyway, here goes my list of non-resolutions for 2004.

• I would like to learn how to play chess.
• I would like to vacation overseas. Where? Who cares? It's vacation!!
• I would like to stay in better touch with family and friends, because none of us has an infinite number of trips around the sun.
• I would like to read The Lord of the Rings cover-to-cover. I've seen the movie.
• I'd like to try ice skating, because there's a lovely rink outside my office window.
• I want to learn how to use Cascading Style Sheets. No, they are not an upscale laundry product.
• I would like to get back into doing yoga, before my back gets done in.
• I want to try making a homemade haggis. The alternative? Buying one.

Happy 2004, friends. I wish you health, love, prosperity and peace in the coming year, and remember the hidden lesson of the mohel's clock: don't let life simply pass by your front window - you never know when it may get cut off unexpectedly.

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.

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