My turn: Resolutions still intact

I have kept my New Year’s resolutions for nine days.

The first was to stop exercising and gain weight.

The second was to be less patient with those trying to convert me with simplistic canards.

Instead of expressing my appreciation for their enlightenment, I now tell them that I read their proffered materials decades ago — then offer my own suggestions to make them aware of the factual and philosophical issues they need to address.

It has been difficult to keep my third resolution to stop pretending that I am empathic about problems that people bring on themselves. My pretending is so ingrained that I probably qualify for the Screen Actors Guild, so it has been challenging to give up the thespian behavior.

The fourth resolution was to confront people who practice small discourtesies that fly under their awareness radar: not returning calls or e-mails, making knee-jerk judgments about people’s geographic roots, physical appearance or vocation, criticizing a tiny, insignificant error while ignoring the overall quality of a person’s determined effort, treating waitresses and clerks like objects, not stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks...

Since I wasn’t able to confront some transgressors immediately, I have adjusted my resolution to at least write about them.

Looks like I am off to a good start.