Ahem, a report from my daily morning constitutional, Jan. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n
There is a lot of weight in a resolution.<\/p>\n
If publicly announced, you have 365 days to fulfill it or to be shamed for not doing so.<\/p>\n
And internally, depending on what your genetic makeup is, the exultation of success or the depression of failure can influence not only you but those around you.<\/p>\n
Our actions matter.<\/p>\n
Recently I was approached about the verbiage I had included in one of my superbly incredible pieces of journalistic worth.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, it was a dissatisfied approacher angry about my community reporting.<\/p>\n
The words in question weren’t mine.<\/p>\n
They were in answer to my words in the form of a question.<\/p>\n
They were quotes.<\/p>\n
That is what I try to do in my work.<\/p>\n
I ask someone a question, write down their answer, try to get opposing views…and for me, I always try to sneak in a calming phrase (which is not journalistically required unless I was writing an opinion piece which, in reality, is saved for my columns so I can make fun of myself).<\/p>\n
Or I try to have a fact that supports both sides (which is journalistically sound).<\/p>\n
So I was thinking about this confrontation and how much I impact others.<\/p>\n
And since I do my best thinking during my morning constitutional, well, an interesting question came to my mind…<\/p>\n
So just how much excrement, daily, am I putting out into the universe?<\/p>\n
One pound solid and eight cups liquid?<\/p>\n
That seems light.<\/p>\n
You get where I am going here..yes, solids are bowel movements and liquids are urine — geez, go through surgery once in a while, would you?<\/p>\n
So how else was I affecting my surroundings…yikes.<\/p>\n
The tiding wrappings for that poundage?<\/p>\n
The wrappings that wrap the wrappings that ride along with that poundage??<\/p>\n
What else do I do???<\/p>\n
Just a side glance at the free plastic grocery bags now holding various disposed of items that our household considers “trash” made my tummy grumble.<\/p>\n
Back to my thinking place…<\/p>\n
How many of these bags a week am I letting summer bears paw through? Would a backyard burn barrel help?? How do I get a back yard???<\/p>\n
How is this bargain-barrel hovel I lay my head at heated? Would a pellet stove help?? How can I hide a pellet stove from my landlord???<\/p>\n
What are my clothes made of? Do I need this many clothes?? Can I eat clothes???<\/p>\n
Arggggg…I am going down a rabbit hole.<\/p>\n
I haven’t even discussed my daily constitutional, which is a different constitutional as it is considered a regular walk or other activity I undertake for health benefits… you know, a little fresh air to clear the air — so to speak — from the stress of daily accumulations of, well, “stuff” as in “STUFF happens.”<\/p>\n
How did I get to this trailhead? Did I arrive electrically or by gas power?? Should I have picked up all my trail accomplices???<\/p>\n
How old are my hiking clothes? Can they be older?? Can I wear closet moths???<\/p>\n
Who left this plastic bag from their doggie? Can I leave plastic bags from myself?? Where do all these plastic bags go???<\/p>\n
Why do I not hunt and gather more? Am I smart enough to hunt and gather more?? How can I be one with nature if I am killing and eating it???<\/p>\n
Is this planet enjoying my visit? Will it welcome my departure?? Is it dying at a slower rate than my ancestral lineage???<\/p>\n
I wonder what happened to my resolutions from last year.<\/p>\n
Should I keep the ones that worked last year? Did any work last year?? If not, when and how did they fail???<\/p>\n
Over the years, so many have come and gone: Be good. Be kind. Say hi. Help others. Eat healthier. Do this or don’t do that. Have a safe word. Write the safe word down for others. Pet a pet. Smile more. Cry more. Listen. Don’t wait to say you love someone…there were more than these 13, obviously.<\/p>\n
But maybe those resolutions are too big. Maybe I should start smaller.<\/p>\n
What do I smell like? Do I smell the same to others?? If someone says I smell good, am I expected to smell better and have not lived up to their expectation of odor???<\/p>\n
Did you know that aromas are actually tiny particles floating about that we collect via nasal membranes and nerve endings that send a note up to the brain saying, “Hey, this is gross… or, wow, what a wonderful feeling you just gave me…”<\/p>\n
Maybe I should resolve to smell better, to be less gross and to be more wonderful.<\/p>\n
Maybe I will read a book this year. A friend of mine gave me, “The Treadwell Carpenter” by Bob Janes.<\/p>\n
“The Grieving Brain” by Mary-Frances O’Connor and “The Complete Book of the Olympics” by David Wallechinsky are both on my shelf, unfulfilled from last year’s quest for self-improvement.<\/p>\n
How many books do I have? How many trees were harvested to make their pages and bindings?? How many untouched items are next to these books???<\/p>\n
What can I do to improve? What can I say?? Does it really matter???<\/p>\n
Yep, there is a lot of weight in a resolution.<\/p>\n
Maybe I should just resolve to be resolute.<\/p>\n
I believe I will sit down and think about this.<\/p>\n
And where do I do my best thinking?<\/p>\n
Good morning, 2025!<\/p>\n
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ahem, a report from my daily morning constitutional, Jan. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":957,"featured_media":114860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[568,128],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-114859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home2","category-sports","tag-column","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114859"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=114859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}