no resolution

last night we were in the car on our way to meet friends for dinner and a round of monster mini golf [ordinary enough mini golf but the course is peppered with animatronic monsters and ghouls, the decor is lit with black lighting, and there's enough lite horror and halloween imagery to make this horror geek giddy as hell]. on one side of the freeway was the sac 6 drive-in theater, still open for business, and on the other side was a strip mall with a 24-hour fitness center. guess which one was packed with people?

you guessed it. i suppose the fitness industry counts on the yearly boost in membership fees from earnest, well-meaning individuals who resolve each jan. 1st to get into shape. the gyms should be packed until march or so when those well-meaning individual resolves turn into exercises of procrastinations and excuses.

still, it's worth the effort, right? i guess, but a collection of resolutions to make my life better for the new year is very low on my list of things to do. to change one's life, as rilke instructed us to do, takes a helluva lot of resolve and discipline. who can succeed at that? and to change for the better? what do we mean by 'better' anyway?

so no resolutions for me. except to read more, write more, publish maybe a bit more, watch more movies, demonstrate my love and fidelity to my family and my friends, eat more, drink more, and maybe take up smoking. oh, and go to the drive-ins more, until the drive-ins are finally shut down as they've been threatening to do for years. but hell, i figure just do what you love. life is short and death is like forever.

as the old roman poet said, carpefuckingdiem.

for the new year and the new decade i'll have the great marvin gaye have the last word: