Dare to Be Stupid

My husband has finally made a New Year's resolution. He usually doesn't make them. It is this: He resolved to follow through on his "stupid ideas" this year. 

Now, I have to laugh a bit, but he has a valid point here. I'd like to quote my good friend Mur Lafferty when she heard about this resolution. She says (and I quote at length, with her permission):

"How many times have you thought of something and then cast it aside thinking, 'Nah, that's stupid.' Were you really thinking you didn't want to spend the time to see if it would be cool? Were you afraid stupid = failure? And how many things that are awesome (or at the very least successful) can you see, if written down on paper, looked stupid to begin with?

• Let's make a video game where you roll around a sticky ball and pick stuff up (Katamari Damacy)
  
• Let's make [insert any popular reality TV show here]
  
• Let's scream at people who have different opinions than we do (any political talking head show)
  
• Let's bottle water and sell it.
  

"I don't like resolutions, but I do like this philosophy. I wonder how it fits for long-term projects--stupid ideas--that I've had. 'I should start a new magazine/podcast/audio drama/novel!' But it's a concept I just might consider doing. What is worse: one success, or ten successes and three failures?"

Let's all try to be a little bit stupid this year, and see what happens.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! October 31 is the holiday of Samhain, traditionally the Celtic new year, after the harvest season. 

I like to celebrate the start of a new year whenever I can. Why wait until January 1? I celebrate new years on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year), and in late February (Asian new years), not to mention Samhain and, yes, January 1. Birthdays are a great time for a new year, too. In fact, ANY day is the start of a new year--it's exactly 1 year later than it was this time last year.

All this talk of new years makes me think of resolutions. Resolutions should be made for self-improvement... and we should not have to wait until Jan 1 to improve ourselves. No more procrastination! Declare it a new year and get ON with your life!