Happy New Year to All

Looking out at the courtyard from my fourth-floor apartment windows in St. Paul this New Year’s morning, I see clearing skies above rooftops blanketed with snow.

Indoors, I'm still cheered by Christmas lights and a display of cards from friends and loved ones.

That's despite the fact that I went to bed last night knowing the results of the Des Moines Register's poll giving Obama a seven-point lead over Clinton. The good news this morning is that with the release of CNN's poll, Real Clear Politics shows Clinton maintaining a slim lead of 1.6 over Obama and Edwards in an average of all recent Iowa polls.

I’ve been so caught up in Campaign 2008, especially the continuing tight race among Democratic candidates in Iowa, that I’ve not given much thought to New Year’s resolutions.

Echoing in my mind is a comment a friend made a couple of years ago about a lesson she’d learned from her cancer support group: “You can’t even scratch your nose in the past or the future; the present is all you’ve got.”

Here’s the deal: the present moment is all that belongs to any of us, a reality that makes resolutions for the coming year an iffy practice to begin with.

Nevertheless, based on the familiar advice to be the change we want to make, I do have one resolution in mind. I’ve heard a lot of complaints lately about the corruption in Washington with leading candidates promising to clean up the current mess.

God knows I’ve done my share of complaining about the moral bankruptcy of the Bush Administration.

Speaking of the deity, I’m reminded of the biblical teaching that if we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves.

Perhaps, we should all resolve this time around to be the change we'd like to see our political leaders make by acknowledging our own shortcomings and checking up on ourselves daily to make sure we're practicing what we preach about standards of personal and professional conduct.

Paying attention to feedback from family, friends, and neighbors will undoubtedly help us here.

But as we go our way, let's not forget to give ourselves due credit as well.