Welcome to Thinking Out Loud, a blog that contains postings from The Tampa Tribune’s Editorial Board and from various Tribune Community Columnists. Unlike the unsigned editorials that represent the newspaper’s institutional voice, the blog postings offer personal perspectives on the issues, personalities and events of Tampa Bay.
We invite you to participate by posting your comments. We’ll do our best to respond.
Contributors:
Joe Guidry
Joe Guidry is the deputy editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune. He is a Tampa native and a graduate of the University of South Florida. He is married and has an adult son.
Jeff Stidham
Jeff Stidham grew up and lives in Bartow. He has been with the Tribune for nearly 22 years, the last 10 on the editorial board.
William Yelverton
William Yelverton is a Tribune editorial writer who has worked for the paper nearly 22 years. He lives in the Dade City area.
Jim Beamguard
Jim Beamguard is a Tribune editorial writer. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Davidson College. He and his family live in Brandon.
Jackie Papandrew:
Jackie Papandrew is a freelance writer and editor. Her syndicated humor column appears in publications in the United States, Canada and India. She lives in Largo with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.jackiepapandrew.com.
Camille Beredjick
Camille Beredjick is a senior at Chamberlain High School, an avid musician and a scribbler with a quirky sense of humor. In the fall, she will be attending Northwestern University to study journalism, political science and music, and she plans to pursue a career in journalism.
Jim Harnish
Jim Harnish is in his 17th year as Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. He and his wife, Marsha, have two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethune-Cookman University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles and studies. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and cheering for the Florida Gators.
Angela Hunt
Angela Hunt is a novelist living in Pinellas County with her husband and two 220-pound mastiffs.
Sheryl Young
Sheryl Young was a Tampa Tribune Community Columnist in 2005-2006. A freelance writer since 1997, including the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Style Magazines, St. Pete Times and nationally in Better Nutrition, Today’s Christian Woman and more. She’s received a First Place Amy Foundation national "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award, and has lived in Tampa Bay with her family for over 20 years.
Christie Gold
Christie Gold teaches English and journalism at Freedom High School in Tampa where she advises Revolution, the school newspaper. She has been both the Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year and Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year. She lives on a small farm in Wesley Chapel where she trains as a competitive equestrian.
Natalie D. Preston
Natalie D. Preston is a karaoke singing, only-child pouting, Seminole Tomahawk waving, newlywed bride blushing, 50-state traveling, girlie girl who loves to shop, read, run and jump up and down on her soapbox.
Fernando Figueroa
Fernando Figueroa is a researcher, educator and lives in Riverview.
Gary Beemer
Interests include humor, politics, economics, community and world affairs, finance, people, religion, music, sports, current events, the arts and education.
Nicole Yunger Halpern
Nicole Yunger Halpern is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she studies everything she can get her nerdy little hands on. Desired major: life. No, not necessarily biology. Life.
Kris DiGiovanni
Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune Community Columnist, Huffington Post contributor, Daily Kos diarist, and teacher, who recently moved from NW Hillsborough to another planet - a small beach community in Pinellas County. She also blogs at www.sandscript.wordpress.com
H. David Braswell Jr.
H. David Braswell Jr. is an Information Systems Professional. He is a native New Yorker and a lifelong NY Giants fan. He attended college in California (Cal State Northridge) and moved to Tampa in 1998.
Sean Marcus
Sean Marcus teaches creative writing, journalism and reading at Chamberlain High School. He has one son and is
expecting a daughter in early March. He can be reached at wuizabug@gmail.com
This Year, Resolve Not to Form New Year’s Resolutions
Posted Jan 1, 2010 by Nicole Yunger Halpern
Updated Jan 1, 2010 at 04:28 PM
In tenth grade, I felt puzzled by the hullabaloo about New Year’s resolutions.
“What have you resolved to change next year?” my Spanish teacher asked our class. Actually, he asked something that began with “¿Qué han…?” but let’s pretend you’ve achieved last year’s resolution to master a new language and so this dialogue is not English, but Spanish that you’ve unconsciously translated into English. Go you!
“I don’t make New Year’s resolutions,” I confessed.
“Why not?”
“If my life needs to change during the year, I try to change it then. Why would I wait until New Year’s?”
I’m not bragging about having ironclad self-discipline. Enough partygoers blew horns last night; tooting mine would only worsen their hangover headaches. Rather, I’m explaining how stupid I feel for not understanding New Year’s resolutions.
Stupidly, I let five years pass before confronting my ignorance; for five years, I disdained the tradition. But millions of Americans wouldn’t practice a tradition deserving of disdain, right? So last night, I stood toe-to-personified-toe with the idea of New Year’s resolutions and stared it in the ojos. Here’s what I learned:
I’d disdained New Year’s resolutions because they seem to discourage the formation of resolutions during the rest of the year. We make such a fuss over challenges undertaken in January that undertaking ones in October seems unnecessary.
Suppose an amiga dazzled by your Spanish urges you in October to learn French with her. “Hasta luega,” the approaching New Year might tempt you to respond. “I’ll join you in January.” But your friend’s bursting with enthusiasm—enthusiasm that can help both of you keep that resolution—now. New Year’s resolutions can hinder the go-get-‘em spirit it supposedly encourages.
In other words, “New Year’s resolution” translates to “resolución de año nuevo.” Whoops, wrong translator! “New Year’s resolution” can translate to “excuse for procrastination.”
But remember, millions of Americans applaud themselves for forming New Year’s resolutions, and millions of Americans wouldn’t do something as stupid as applaud themselves for procrastinating, right? So maybe I’m taking the wrong view. Instead of interpreting New Year’s resolutions as encouraging a one-shot-per-year approach to life improvement, I can interpret them as reminding us of what we should do throughout the year.
Most New Year’s resolutions involve what I’ll call Tier One Habits—studying French, exercising, cleaning your room each week. But New Year’s resolutions can also broach Tier Two: the habit of forming and resolving Tier One Habits. Tier Two obviates New Year’s resolutions by enabling you to form good habits whenever necessary—not only on New Year’s. (See? I told you millions of Americans wouldn’t do something stupid!)
In conclusion: This New Year’s, consider resolving to give up New Year’s resolutions.
