I've collected the following gems of wisdom and advice clearly designed to help each of us create a more blessed and informed 2022.
Some are my own observations. Others are borrowed. Nonetheless, they apply to each of us and how we choose to share our individual and fleeting lifetimes:
Sincerely compliment at least three others each day.
Always be the first to say hello.
Be wise enough to live beneath your means.
Treat everyone else like you want to be treated.
Never "give up" on another. Miracles happen daily.
Forget the hypothetical Joneses and struggling to keep up with them.
Never deprive another of hope. Hope could be all they have left.
Don't pray for more material things, but for wisdom and discernment.
Choose to be kinder than you need to be.
Never forget another's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
Keep your word and promises. They are a reflection of your character and spirit.
Remember that overnight success in reality takes about 15 years.
Time will pass regardless. You can choose to spend it creating the life you want or one you wished you hadn't and will regret.
Leave everything better than you found it.
Remember winners will do what losers don't want to do.
Upon arrival at work in the morning let the first thing you say brighten the day of everyone around you.
You can choose to either dance in the rain or sulk in it. The rain will come either way.
Never waste the opportunity to reassure a loved one that they are.
Patience, empathy and understanding are vital to a peaceful and happy existence.
Teaching that you are a victim ensures a lifetime of difficulty and misery.
Refrain from speaking and acting out when you are angry.
Your ability to reason tends to obey itself while ignorance surrenders to whatever might be directed its way.
Knowing when to remain silent can be a great achievement and a benefit to you.
And finally, acts of evil are not conquered using tolerance and understanding.
Ashes with ideas
Over the past two years, three of us gray-haired friends have gathered each month or so on a deck or secluded residential hideaway with an eye toward solving the endless problems of our nation.
It's not that we are officially sanctioned or qualified for such an enormous responsibility, you should understand.
It's more that we require the will, rather than the ability, to resolve soaring crime rates, our perilously wide-open southern border, crippling inflation, supply-chain failures, rapidly increasing covid infections, serious fuel-supply issues, troubles with China, Iran and Russia and, well, you name the myriad problems that have plagued our nation, especially over the past year.
So far, with so many urgent national problems at hand, we've also avoided spending much time repairing the wholly politicized "threat" to our own voting process.
Our limited brain trust of sorts convenes over smooth-drawing Robusto cigars and short glasses of single-malt Scotch, sipped as if we were nurturing the final bottle on Earth. The combination seems to add context to our conversations.
Our ritual began in the wake of the TV comedy "Boston Legal," where the lawyer characters played by William Shatner and James Spader ended each episode on the balcony of their law firm overlooking Boston and discussing what went right or wrong in their cases and lives.
There's no agenda, as such, for the retired Presbyterian minister, the real estate guru and this aging columnist beyond discussing the everyday ailments of a beleaguered community, state and nation.
Well, that's not exactly accurate since we also occasionally delve into personal matters that require more than one relevant viewpoint to help gain clarity and perspective in our own lives.
Today, if we aren't settled in on our deck on warmer days, we're nestled into the warmth of Rev. Dick Shinkle's remodeled backyard shed he's aptly named "Holy Smokes," or Ron Patrick's garage/man-cave complete with a restroom and refrigerator.
Older, deliberative men such as ourselves require comfortable settings to maximize our purported ability to collectively cipher and reason.
I seriously doubt these gatherings would have happened in our early years when we were in the throes of careers and families that demanded so much of our time and energy.
Today we finally have an opportunity to reflect on everything done right, wrong or somewhere in between.
In short, our various hideaways provide the opportunity to exchange observations and experiences that, while occasionally at odds, allow us to continue gaining knowledge and celebrating the rewards and fulfillment of friendship in this winter of life we share.
Whenever human beings talk about the joys and personal rewards of existence, it is gatherings such as these and the memories they generate over hours spent sharing wisdom and laughter that help define richness in life.
And, truth be told, that's the underlying reason we make time to congregate.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.