Richard and Sabina: A Biography of the Rev. Richard Wurmbrand and His Wife Sabina

No, I haven't made any resolutions. Actually that should come with a disclaimer: other than the readily available ones which come to everyone's mind.

Get in shape. Now there's a mouthful. Just the thought of exercise, after a day spent on the feet at a blue collar job, nine hours standing in pretty much the same spot, getting soaked in water working over a hot tank, sweating, steamed like a clam is enough to make me even more tired. Or want something to eat. Pass the salt please.

Then, there's the need to reinforce the dream for those of us who still feel, feed its feeble glow, a torch through our darkest hours. I often ask myself "why torture yourself like this, wracking the mind for words that won't come?" Especially when no money's forthcoming from the effort.

Unfortunately, it's how our society defines success. If you can't make a living out of the pursuit, you're pretty much a failure. Forget the entire top shelf of the bookcase upstairs crammed with magazines, newsletters and tearsheets, literally hundreds of published stories, poems, articles and reviews. Never mind a few of them have been paid appearances. Including a six plus year stint as a columnist for the local newspaper. A few grand does not a career make.

After the Madness

As for the third resolution we all make: be a kinder person, you know how long that'll last. The first person cuts us off down the road on the way to work, shopping, etc. earns a silly angry rant and self-loathing at our lack of patience.

Jesus said "the spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak." And so it is. Which makes you, or me rather, wonder. Why bother with making promises we'll never keep?

The only response I can come up with is a simple, one word solution. Hope. If not for that, we'd all just give up. Or more likely, roll over and go back to sleep. While the human race ground to a halt.

Instead, we keep a gleam in the eye, stir the embers in the belly. No matter how distant, unattainable the goal, how it seems to slip a bit farther away with each passing year, we dare to dream it's possible. And right up until we admit otherwise, it truly is.

It's that time of year again. . . when we all make (or don't) resolutions. What better, seasonal topic to write about? Hope this strikes your fancy and beats the deadline for the next issue. Just want you to know I appreciate your publishing my relatively unimportant opinions on your website. It is, after all, the epitome of arrogance to assume anyone wants to read what a person writes.

I thank you for the opportunity, space to do so.

regards,

G.A. Scheinoha