KEY POINTS:
A couple of weeks ago, Saturday columnist Noelle McCarthy suggested that with a new year imminent it was a good time to "take stock ... to cast a dispassionate eye over ourselves and our doings ... "
It's a great idea, but you can bet that few will give it even a thought, let alone a second thought. For, as McCarthy points out, a "cold, calm, unstinting self-evaluation ... requires strength and commitment, a sturdy spirit [and] a strong stomach".
Instead, as most of us do all year long, we will spend the "holiday" season in constant, self-indulgent, frenetic activity which, of course, is the ideal antidote to any thoughts of self-examination.
And that is why most people never slow down, never stand still and can't stand being alone; any one of those might make room for a moment or two of introspection.
The Greek philosopher Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living". And that's why so many people, albeit subconsciously, make very sure there is never any time for self-examination. It just might reveal that their lives aren't worth living.
It is also the reason so many indulge in the materialism and conspicuous consumerism that say enough is never enough, and why so many become addicted to work, booze and drugs, sex, sport, television and the internet.
There are, however, some of us to whom a healthy introspection is part of life - an objective daily personal inventory-taking that helps to keep us on track, prevents us from making the same mistakes twice and helps us to grow as individuals. Those of us who do indulge in seasonal reflection may give some thought to the effect we might have on others, our loved ones particularly, before we speak or act.
One of the most valuable lessons I learned in life was to interpose a thought between a feeling and a word or a feeling and an action. For far greater harm can be done by an unkind word than by a physical assault.
In my own meditation on the year just past and the year to come I have decided that if God should grant me one single wish, I would wish for peace on Earth and goodwill among all men (and women and children, too, of course).
It's not going to happen, even though thousands of millions of dollars (and pounds and euros and yen and shekels and all sorts of other coin) will be spent on trying to achieve it, and tens of millions of man-hours devoted to its pursuit.
It won't happen because "world peace" - a term I've heard week in and week out since I was born on the day Italy entered World War II - can never be achieved on a global scale until it is a reality locally.
As long as men and women (and, these days, men and men and women and women) and children snarl and spit and belt one another in the home, there can never be peace in the neighbourhood.
As long as neighbours complain and bicker over their fences and take one another to court there can never be peace in the community.
As long as communities (cities and districts and provinces) contend with one another and politicians and their parties play never-ending games of denigration and one-upmanship, there can never be peace in the nation.
And as long as there is no peace in this nation there can be no peace in the world. Peace, you see, starts with each of us as individuals and spreads outward, not the other way around.
So let's not worry about "world peace", let's concentrate in the New Year on peace in our own homes and our own neighbourhoods, for the achievement of those alone would bring immeasurable and priceless rewards.
Just imagine. It could bring an end to spousal violence and to child neglect and abuse; it could see an end to poverty; it could help to prevent murder and grievous bodily harm, sexual assaults and housebreaking, drug-taking and alcohol abuse and even truancy.
And if that were achieved in just one apartment building, one short street, one small suburban block, it just might spread from there to a suburb, from a suburb to a city, from a city to a nation and from a nation to a disturbed and fretful world.
Idealistic? Certainly. Impossible? Probably. For we are up against man's three greatest weaknesses - pride, selfishness and greed.
But those of us prepared to give it a go will be able, when 2008 comes off the calendar to be replaced by 2009, to comfort ourselves in the knowledge that at least we tried.
Blessings for a thoughtful New Year.
* garth.george@hotmail.com
