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Timeless New Year's Resolutions

Mea culpa, most of November and December passed with crafts and writing that was not suitable for the blog, as well as other real-life obligations. The hiatus was not intentional, but it was needed. 

As a small gesture to make up for my radio silence, please enjoy selections from a story recounted in the Clarke Courier on December 31, 1959. The full story is available for free through the link, and is also filled with amazing Mid Century clip art for Christmas and New Years (although they are not yet in the public domain, they are extremely tempting and it's work paging through the newspaper if you enjoy that era's graphic design).

. . . A few years ago I wrote a column on resolutions that I would make. I passed the usual, the trivial, and suggested that perhaps it would be a wise idea to try to improve my character. My first thought was that I could be a little more kind. A friend of mine who edits a newspaper in another town wrote that I could have stopped right there and that would be the most inspiring thought I could give my readers. He wrote that there is so little real thoughtfulness, so little real kindness and everyone needs it desperately, both to give and receive this virtue. 

This Christmas, I was doing my last bit of shopping. It was getting late and I was terribly tired. I was carrying my gifts to be sure they wouldn’t be delayed by the mails. . . . Just the thing. I put down my packages, stood beside the counter and waited. My muscles ached and my head throbbed. I wanted to complete my purchase and go home. 

A Journey in Search of Christmas, detail, by Frederic Remington, 1904. From Public Domain Files.

I saw a clerk passing and suggested she take my order. She replied that she was busy and would get to me as soon as possible. . . .

I shifted from one foot to the other. I looked around for another person to help me and wished I had the nerve to sit on the floor and howl for help. 

Eventually a door opened and out came the most miserable bit of humanity I had seen for a long time. She was plain, she was scrawny, her little eyes peered out of huge horn rimmed glasses. . . . I knew she was probably one of the clerks that are taken on to help with the Christmas rush and I knew also that it would take her ages to sell something as simple as a set of glasses.

I was right. . . . Finally she emerged from the wrapping departmest [department] with the glasses. When she handed them to me she smiled, and suddenly her ugly little face wasn’t ugly any more. 

"Thank you for being so patient," she said, "And I hope you have a very merry Christmas, and a happy holiday." 

I don’t think I have ever been so ashamed of myself. I slunk out of the store and hurried to the car. That puny, inefficient, little clerk had certainly cut me down to size and I didn’t like to feel so small. 

What are my resolutions? I resolve to be more kind, more patient, more tolerant, and more thoughtful.

A fitting lesson - we can only hope the column writer took the advice to heart and stopped judging people by their exterior appearance. Perhaps the world would be a better place if everyone followed the writer's footsteps and made the same resolutions this New Year's.

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