Keeping New Year’s Resolutions (Or Not)

 

By: Bob Boyer

 

Happy 2016! Have you been keeping your New Year’s resolutions? OK, I don’t expect you either to share what your resolutions are or how well you are keeping them, unless you want to, of course. I will share one of the resolutions I made two years ago on New Year’s Day of 2014. It was to “Accentuate the Positive” in my “VIA Times” articles. By that, I mean mainly my approach or tone but also my choice of subject.

I first browsed through my 2014 articles to see how well I had kept my resolution that year. Then I looked at the 2015 articles to see if the resolution had any staying power. I gave myself arrow scores: up arrow (^) for mainly positive; up and down (^/v) for mixed. Fortunately I did not have to use a lone down arrow (v) for mainly negative.

2014 Articles:

This was a tough one since, of course, I can’t simply ignore the negatives that happened, and this was the year of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). I was pleased, however, that even with the mostly negative subjects I was able to find something on the hopeful side. Five articles received a mixed (^/v) score. Seven were mainly positive (^). If you are counting, you will notice that I’m missing one month. March, alas, has escaped from my computer files.

2015 Articles:

The following are the articles by month, with my arrow scoring and a brief explanation or simply the title. For readers who may not have read the articles, here is your chance for the short, short version.

January (^): Melanio Viuya, Missionary of Peace and Justice (and Fun). Father Viuya came to my parish to appeal for prayers and contributions for his parish of Asian (many Filipino) immigrants in Los Angeles. He won me over (I am suspicious of missionaries) with his sense of humor. “Hopefully, I am not only raising funds for the mission but also raise fun and fondness for the mission.” As I noted then, this is an admirable philosophy and very Filipino.

February (^): Why I Love the Philippines/Filipinos. This is my title for a travel-literature talk I gave at UW-Green Bay about the Philippines.

March (^/v): Upside&Downside Jobs in the Philippines. The Philippines is the new “Asian Tiger” but the Tiger limps with “widespread and extreme poverty.”

April (^/v): Philippine History: An Eclectic Chronology. The early days to the present in just over two pages, thanks to Manila newspapers from the 1998 Centennial.

May (^): Philippine Language and Culture: Tidbits. One of my favorite Filipino words is “binibini” (polite young lady). Language reflects culture.

June (^): Books About the Philippines: My Current Favorites. All positives (I teach Lit).

July (^/v): What About the Philippines? I complained to an author and about an article that should have included references to the Philippines but did not. This is one of my pet peeves.

August (^): In Southern Luzon (Bicol Region) and Mindanao Via The Peace Corps 1961-1963. I met Jerry Mullins, one of the first Peace Corps volunteers, and picked his memory.

September (^/v): News From UP Diliman. Good news about Filipino friends at the University of the Philippines, but not about university politics (as usual).

October (^/v): The Netherlands by Trains, Trams, Buses, Bicycles, and Boat. My wife and I visited and fell in love with the Netherlands, almost as much as with the Philippines.

November (^): Recently Deceased U.S. Veterans of WW II in the Philippines.

December (^): The Netherlands . . . Part Two. Another “Waterland” like RP.

Final score for 2015: Seven (^), Five (^/v). We will call that identical with 2014. New resolutions and new approaches can be useful. I confess that I probably lean a bit more negative on my blog (www.anamericaninmanila.com). Let me know what you think at Robert.boyer@snc.edu.