Nikalas Kryzanowski, Opinions Editor opinions @theotherpress.ca I was watching Fiddler on the Roof the other day; the Norman Jewison musical about a Jewish shtetl tucked away deep in czarist Russia, inhabited by fun loving, song singing, deeply tradition-bound Jews whose world is turned topsy-turvy by encroaching modernity. Traditions are broken and compromised. The final result? Displacement. The Jews are forced out of their ancestral homes by a czarist edict, families broken up and dispersed across the world - to from Siberia to New York, Krakow to Chicago. Yes, I told you how it ends but any history book would’ ve done the same. It got me thinking about community and how our lifestyle stacks up against those of the village prior to the edict and whether we’re any better off. I realize that we live in a region of two million people clustered together versus a village of maybe a hundred but there a few things that strike me as interesting living in a small village. The first is the sense of identity one must get from being a part of something. The whole village is a team with everyone playing a role. Here in the Lower Mainland most people don’t know their immediate neighbours. Some don’t even speak the same language as them! While it sounds great on paper—cultures living in harmony together—not being able to speak on any meaningful level because of both a linguistic and cultural gap makes things difficult. In a small village without much in the way of “social service,” there is a far greater sense of individual responsibility and a far greater sense of individual worth. When the bad weather struck our region, only major thoroughfares benefited from the snow removal budget; the rest of the residential roads were left on their own. Did anyone or any group of neighbours get outside and shovel these roads together as a community? Nope, they simply spun their tires until they mustered up enough traction to get out. Two weeks later they still sit snowed! I have a hard time understanding why “bigger and faster” is the mantra of large modern societies. There is so much beauty in simplicity and the understated. The industrial revolution has turned people into extensions of machines, mere button pushers instead of crafters. Retail has done everything possible to sap the humanity from marketplace transactions by spoiling “consumers” rotten at.the expense of “customer service representatives.” The gadget boom of the last decade as well has spurred a lot of tech-headaches, filled homes with unused cables and crappy bits of broken plastic, while alienating us from the people immediately around us, thereby eroding our sense of real community, all the while telling us how they’ve drastically improved the community. The modern world has a lot to answer for. Just what is the end goal of our society? Just to keep getting bigger until we eventually burst? Or perhaps until each of us has our own “happiness box” that we can climb into that would hook us up 24/7 relegating us to becoming mere observers of our own lives. If so, I’m hitching a ride to the 19" Century. New Year, new goals, new ways to keep ‘em By Priscilla Bartleman A New Year’s Resolution is a commitment After you have written it down, post it somewhere you can see it. someone makes to themselves about change. It can be either habit or lifestyle and it usually takes effect January 1“ and will be around until it is fulfilled or well abandoned. As I write this, it is almost New Years Eve and I am thinking about things I tried to change last-year. I did not really stick to it and I’ve considered making some new resolutions. Is it a waste of my time, though? How am I going to make a resolution and stick to it? So I did some thinking and some searching and found a few helpful tips. For starters, go through your thoughts and write everything down that you would like to do in the New Year. It does not always have to be a negative in your life to change. There can also be good things like plan a trip or spend more time with family. I think mixing in some good with the not so good will make the year more pleasant. Now that you have written it down you need to limit the number you are going to actually do. Some big and some small would be good. It would be nice to say you did one or two of the tasks before year’s end, and the taste of victory will help with motivation for the larger tasks. When writing it down and making it a plan you need to be specific. Unfortunately for me, last year I thought too big and wasn’t specific—I said “I am going to become a vegan.” Well, that was very difficult as there is more to a vegan lifestyle than I could maintain. I felt I was not going to be able to commit fully to clothing, products I buy and food I eat so I dropped the resolution and went back to being a vegetarian. So, make it something more specific and realistic of course. Set incremental goals! Why didn’t I think of that? It makes sense to me. Setting mini goals that lead up to the larger goal will make the task not so large and when you reward yourself for reaching an incremental goal it is going to feel great. Work on your goal everyday. When you do something everyday it becomes easier to do it than if you were to do it a few times a week. I read that it is positive to substitute a good habit for a bad one but I think you would have to be careful with what you are substituting. There can be too much of a good thing so just be careful what you are substituting for and how much of it. Just remember to stay positive! If you don’t reach a mini goal in the time you gave yourself just adjust for the new time. I think life is about doing the best you can, when you can and if you get half way this year then it is half way closer than you were before. Don’t be too hard on yourself and don’t forget to reward yourself! Top 10 Resolutions of 2009: 1. Get out of debt 2. Lose weight/ get in shape 3. Quit smoking 4. More time with family/ friends 5. Raise/ promotion at work 6. Find a new job 7. Take a vacation 8. Help others 9. Learn something new 10. Go back to school