Will in us is over-rul'd by fate. . . . Christopher Marlowe

Our holidays are coming to a close.  I hope you had lots of fun and got outside and played in the snow and ate all sorts of tasty things and read a book and watched a movie and listened to some music and visited nice people.

Now, I guess it's time for New Year's resolutions.  Many people resolve to eat healthy foods and exercise, but I think I try to do that anyway.  I think last year I resolved to blog more and I don't know if I kept that resolution.  Sometimes, life gets in the way (see the wise saw from Christopher Marlowe above).  This year, I resolve to finish my play by the end of January.  I am going to read all of Christopher Marlowe's plays and a few of Shakespeare's that I have read but don't remember at all -- Love's Labour's Lost being one of them.  These seem to me to be good resolutions that I might have the power to keep!  I think I will resolve to try to think positively.  I received a message from one of the many activist websites which has my name somehow and it listed all the positive things that happened last year (even though most of us are thinking about the upcoming inauguration of Donald Trump, which, to me, is NOT POSITIVE), for example -- the number of tigers is now on the upswing and the countries of the world have created the world's largest marine reserve in Antarctica.  I do try to do my part by donating money to good causes and even participating in local good works (like removing ivy along Shoreline Park in Port Moody and doing the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup) but it is easy to feel like the world is going to hell in a handbasket when you read the news.  But I have faith in people of good will.  I do.  I really do.  (Methinks I doth protest too much.)

I did read something interesting about weight loss.  You probably remember that television show that was on not that long ago called "The Biggest Loser".  Well, they did some research about whether the people who lost a great deal of weight were able to keep it off and none of them were!  The researchers wondered why and discovered that the people's bodies compensated for the lack of calories (because the people were dieting) by lowering the person's metabolic rate and also increasing the person's appetite!  It was quite horrifying, really, because it demonstrated that the person was virtually helpless in taking command of something that we assume is under their control.  (Of course, an old determinist like me doesn't believe we're really in control of anything.)

It is quite cold today and rather windy, so if you do go out for one last hurrah, make sure you bundle up.  I am thinking it might be fun to take my toboggan up onto Burnaby Mountain and slide down the hill.  I will alert you if I break my hip!