This year, instead of the “make resolution/break resolution” rigmarole, I decided to consider what I’ve learned. I’d like to think I’ve had some personal growth in the last 366 days.
Sure, a few TV documentaries gave me new insights. News stories showed me social and political issues from around the world.
But I’m talking about the little things: I discovered how to make my mashed potatoes creamier; a new flower that blooms well in my garden; and a new product that would lower my heating costs.
Mainstream media tends to gloss over life’s little things.
Leave It to Beaver would talk about why the boys needed a good breakfast. Meanwhile, today’s shows skip right over that domestic interlude in favour of a crime scene.
We watch the TV lawyers cleverly outmanoeuvre each other in the courtroom, but not the hours of mind-numbing case law research that came before.
We see a crime solved in an hour, but not the weeks of witness interviews and legwork that made it all possible. Why? Because those little details just aren’t interesting.
And today’s generation gets so much of our information from television, it’s no wonder we’re missing some of the details in our real life.
And it’s the details that are tripping us up.
The Biggest Loser contestants often complain that no one taught them about proper nutrition.
Apparently, it didn’t occur to them to crack a book or talk to a nutritionist. Instead, they relied on the latest Wendy’s ad.
From TV, we know how to wear the latest fashions, use the newest technology and design our dream home.
But based on the mountain of consumer debt in North America, we don’t know how to balance – or even create – a budget.
And it’s those pesky life details that seem to be disappointing us.
Certainly, people don’t appear particularly happy about anything anymore.
Last weekend, I went to my little neighbourhood grocery.
I smiled or spoke to nearly everyone I passed. (How very 1950s of me.)
Yet, I could count on one hand the number of people who even made eye contact.
And how many people have told me they’re relieved that Christmas is over?
Didn’t we learn anything from It’s a Wonderful Life?
The little things seem to have lost importance. You could always count on Father Knows Best to give you a few life lessons before the credits rolled.
Today’s TV lessons include crime, indiscriminate sex, or even how to shoot up an elementary school.
But the little things are just as valuable today as they were 50 years ago.
Be friendly to your neighbours. Learn to cook. Budget your spending. Change the oil in your car. Hardly the headlines that keep us coming back to the next Hawaii Five-O.
But just as enduring as those stray pine needles that appear in my couch cushions six months after Christmas.
