By Veroli Zhimo
On New Year's Eve, many of us will make the same resolution we did at the end of last year. By the time end of January 1, most of us would have broken that vow.
That is the joke about New Year's resolutions: We tend to break them.
But on the other hand, to stop setting lofty goals altogether would be a terrible kind of apathy, because the real value of New Year's resolutions is in reminding us that we are imperfect yet persistent creatures. Despite our frailty, we carry on because sometimes we will lose that extra weight or give up that bad habit. We are all fallible but also capable in equal measure: defeated now, perhaps, but not dissuaded from trying again.
There is comfort in that. But it is also a lesson, one we would do well to remember in our political lives.
Like every year, the next few days will bring a flurry of hopeful editorials, suggesting lofty resolutions for citizens and their elected leaders. None of it may actually happen. Calls for January to mark a new birth of bipartisanship will go quiet when we remember that 2023 is an election year. Persuasions for Naga Political Groups to compromise and end the bickering may fall on deaf ears. Perhaps they should, maybe not; the future of a nation is something worth fighting over.
Nevertheless, perhaps this season we should remind ourselves that our leaders, like us, are human.
Too often, the government is seen as a kind of metaphysical entity carrying out its will unhindered. For some, this creates the impression of government as a malevolent foe, one that must be fought before it swallows up our freedoms. For some, it leads to frustration and despair, borne of an inability to understand why the state simply cannot get things right and fix everything the first time.
For everyone, it separates us from the sense that our leaders are like us. That the government is, at best: the collective effort of imperfect individuals trying to figure out what to do because to do nothing would be worse.
It isn’t that we should stop demanding the best of elected officials and leaders. But so long as we choose mortals to lead, the best will always fall short of perfect. No leader, no matter how inspiring, can always do everything we demand, especially when our demands are contradictory. As we do in our own lives, we must learn to accept these limitations without becoming discouraged, or giving up the fight.
As the 32nd President of the United states of America Franklin D Roosevelt — both an inspirational and a fallible leader — said, “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
That should be our New Year’s resolution. And who knows? Perhaps if we all allow each other our humanity, if we “try something” while accepting that not everything will work, then maybe 2022 will be the year that something can get done.
Comments can be sent to vzhimolimi@gmail.com
