Butch Makes His New Year’s Resolution . . .

   Many of you enjoy making New Year’s resolutions after the Christmas holidays. That’s great! I used to do that every year…and then proceeded to break each one by mid-January! However, a few years ago, I decided to make just one resolution that I would keep and never break. It’s a quote from the book “Walden,” written by Henry David Thoreau.

   “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined…If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer…Our life is frittered away by detail…Simplify, simplify.”

  I read that book in high school. I read it again while in college. But I did not follow Thoreau’s suggestions. As a teacher, police officer, and the father of four children…and often working two full-time jobs at the same time, my life was quite hectic. My occupations were very rewarding. I enjoyed helping my students, and it was very satisfying to assist people and solve crimes when I was Sheriff. But I sometimes I met myself coming and going, trying to keep pace with all of the complexities of life. Thoreau stated that “the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation…Things do not change; we change.”

    “What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us…Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then…for my greatest skill has been to want but little…A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone…Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”

  I heard that “different drummer.” I resolved to change my life…to simplify. “Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth…An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day…You must live in the present, find your eternity in each moment.”

   I love life. I love my job. I am happy. At the age of 77, I am living the life I have imagined. I want to keep it that way. What about you?  Take that morning walk. Simplify your life. Live in the present. Enjoy each moment. You will be glad you did. Best wishes, and I hope that 2026 is your best year ever!

John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 36 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.