I don't make New Year's resolutions. I make goals when I feel they are appropriate. For example important, self-imposed draft deadlines. Or birthday cards (to my embarrassment: typically mailed the day before.) Basically, my priorities in my own time. New Year's resolutions are annoying. Why choose a random date to make declarations you don't actually intend to keep?
2009 broke my bah-the-New-Year-humbug running streak.
My daughter, then eight, created a thoughtful New Year's celebration package, which included a banner, confetti, and bright-colored New Year's resolution note cards. Okay, when your eight-year-old hands you a bright orange resolution note card at 10pm (and she can barely keep her little brown eyes open) you have to cave. Naturally. So I wrote a resolution.
The standard "lose five pounds", "exercise more", or "end world hunger" seemed trite, so instead, feeling a tad cheeky, I wrote on line number 1: "Meet the Cato Guys." At the time, I didn't have any particular Cato "guy" in mind, because if you asked me I couldn't name one. I had vaguely familiarized myself with The Cato Institute activities, read a few newsletters, devoured THE DIRTY DOZEN, and followed the Heller Case with great interest, but Cato was Cato. As much as I admired them, they were somehow untouchable, hovering in DC-Think-Tank-Land. Still, there's something about writing a declaration on paper. It becomes real. It enters the put it out in the universe category that my entrepreneurial husband swears by. It was out in the universe and I couldn't let that little, bright-orange note card make a fool out of me. So, I set out to meet "the Cato guys."
This past week I experienced the most valuable conference I've ever had the pleasure of attending: Freedom Fest. A collection of debates, presentations, exhibits, and parties, this was the free-thinkers event of the year. Mark your calendar for July 2010. One of the things I loved about Freedom Fest was that each person did not agree 100% with any other person in attendance. . . but that was perfectly okay. What a universe! For all my years in the groupthink world of liberals, it was like emerging from Plato's Cave.
And, guess what? While I was there, I met a few "Cato guys." David Boaz, Daniel Mitchell, Randall O'Toole, and Michael Tanner. Grant it, being obscenely shy, I decided that shaking their hands, mumbling a comment about appreciating their work, and nodding counted as a "meeting," but I've come a long way since January 1, 2009.
A special thanks to David Boaz, who in his quiet, yet resounding, way prods the pessimist to remember that in 1943 it appeared as if fascism and communism would take over the world. In that same year, three brilliant women - Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand - published books about liberty and individualism. And look how far we've come since then. I will, also, be forever enchanted by the staggeringly good-looking Dan Mitchell (Youtube does *not* do the man justice) who has the unique talent of communicating the hazy world of economics in a language that even I can understand. . . Truthfully, all the presentations were amazing. I could spend hours elaborating. But I'll sum it up with this:
Put it on paper. You might be surprised what happens.
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Posted by: Belstaff Coat | November 17, 2011 at 12:43 PM