Last Year's Lessons

By Charles Wilkinson

I have come to believe that there is a back-story to every New Year's resolution. Like most everyone at this time of year, I tell myself, for instance, that my resolutions are all about looking ahead when they are actually about looking behind.

The past twelve months have been full of familiarities: old patterns, constant friends, the nudges, twitches and elbow pokes of aging. All these and so many other factors tend to make last year feel like the year before - and the year before that.

At a certain age, getting through another year seems like getting through another day. It is as if time warps one into forgetting about it, into believing that life is a forever gift and any given year is "no big deal."

But the last week of every December usually challenges that mind-set, especially when one decides to resolve to do things differently. When one is willing to own and embrace the past - and learn from it -- there is no better teacher than time. Still, one needs to remember that owning the past is very different than living in it.

My mother used to say that the past is dead and gone; "It's water over the dam, darlin'." I believed her back when I barely had a past to call my own. But over many years I have learned that the past is always with us, that growth comes out of it. In fact, in any given moment, even this, we are defined by the sum total of every moment we have lived, each a part of our own back-stories.

But life is a forward event. Last year's lessons may loom large in the next few days while one thinks about and formulates a long list of resolutions meant to make the coming year different and better. In my own experience I have discovered that a list does not do it, that too many resolutions work against themselves and turn even the best of intentions into feelings of guilt by withering in the early days of January.

I have learned that one well-worked-out resolution is more than enough to challenge a self to change in the coming year. Whether rooted in regret or shaped by dream, a truly effective resolution is one that is tailor-made for improving one's quality of life.

Over the next few days, look behind and look ahead. Better yet, look inside to learn how to make the coming year better than the last. I would like to think that is the way life is supposed to happen.

Happy New Year "Sing Auld Lang Syne"*

By Peggy Tarr

In a few days we will embark on a new (Gregorian**) year 2007! As in years gone by, people will make resolutions to improve their lifestyles or their environments. I only remember my mom making resolutions to lose weight, resolutions that demanded repeated recommitment throughout the year. A losing battle!

I don't make New Year's resolutions, perhaps to protect myself against not keeping them. But as I get older, I realize that I value youth (=young people) and friends more and more. And as the New Year approaches, the tune "Auld Lang Syne" (Scottish folk song) plays over and over in my mind, a tune I heard a lot as a child, ushering in a New Year.

Robert Burns (Scottish poet, 1759-96) is given credit for writing words to the tune, although this is disputed by some. Anyway, the essence of the poem is an appreciation of a long-lasting friendship and the past.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne. For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne, We'll take a cup of kindness yet, For auld lang syne!"

The new year symbolizes a passage from the past into the future, and the future ideally gives us hope for a more positive life.

With this in mind, I wanted to share some thoughts on life by similar people.

"It's better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret." - Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American Olympic athlete.

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - Dalai Lama, Tibetan religious leader

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got." - Janis Joplin, entertainer.

"Many search for happiness as we look for a hat we wear on our heads." -- Nikolaus Lenau (Nikolaus Franz), American poet.

"It isn't so much what's on the table that matters, as what's on the chairs." -- W.S. Gilbert, English dramatist and poet.

"God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other." -- Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian.

"It is possible to believe that the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn." - H.G. Wells, English writer

Let's take a cup of kindness now to friends, the old and the new! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

*AULD LANG SYNE = "old long since"; "the good old days."

**Gregorian calendar = reformed Julian calendar now in use, according to which the ordinary year consists of 365 days, and a leap year of 366 days occurs in every year whose numbers are divisible by 400.

Letters

Downtown Evanston's Winter Wonderfest
Editor:

78In the December 13 edition of the Evanston Round Table, there was a very nice article describing the Downtown Evanston Winter Wonder Fest in the section titled "Give in the Holiday Spirit." The article's headline labels the event as "EvMark's Winter Wonder Fest," but we would like to emphasize that this is really Downtown Evanston's Winter Wonder Fest. That is not to say that EvMark did not have a role but, unlike some other events, they were not the driving force behind this one.

The focus of the Winter Wonder Fest is on the charity raffle that will benefit the Evanston Community Foundation and the education and training of tomorrow's leaders. The friendships and relationships that are being developed between the merchants will benefit Downtown Evanston and the residents of Evanston for years to come.

The Downtown Evanston Merchants Association is an informal group of the smaller, independent merchants in the downtown area. That is not to say that we act independently but that we, as a group, have a common interest in the success of the downtown shopping district. We work together to promote the downtown shopping experience and to provide input to the City, the Chamber of Commerce and EvMark.

Merchants in the downtown area have a unique perspective to share and the Winter Wonder Fest is a great demonstration of what is possible when the merchants rally together and combine energies (and money) with the restaurants for a greater good.

You can visit our website at www.downtownevanston.org which has information about the Downtown Evanston Winter Wonder Fest including a list of the participation retailers, a list of the raffle items, and links to the partnering organizations such as EvMark, Evanston Community Found-ation and the North Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau.

--Travis Marlatte, The Things We Love; Tyler Sapien, The Things We Love; Katherine Hamen, The Architect's Wife; and the rest of the 52 businesses supporting this year's Wonder Fest

Opposes EvMark Expansion
Editor:

I have recently learned that the 24-unit condo building where I live, along with other totally residential condo buildings in the downtown area, is in the proposed EvMark extension area, meaning that each condo unit will be taxed annually, just because we live here. The idea is that the residents of downtown Evanston benefit from the greater amount of City services that EvMark provides (snow shoveling, trash removal, marketing, etc.) to the downtown area.

I think this is an incredibly discriminatory tax. We already pay enormous real estate taxes, based on our downtown location, and those taxes should certainly cover City services. They do in all other neighborhoods of the City. Greater amounts of City services have always been needed in the downtown area and always will be needed. But the residential property owners of the neighborhood should not be burdened with an additional tax to pay for them. Downtown Evanston benefits every resident of the City, not just those of us who happen to live here.

Maybe it needs to be pointed out to EvMark, and certainly to our City Council members, that we, the residents of the downtown area, are the ones who repeatedly, day after day, support our neighborhood shops and restaurants, just as the residents of any other neighborhood would do.

We are the ones who are keeping these merchants in business. We are also providing an abundance of sales tax to the City.

We are the foot traffic that frees up the limited amount of downtown parking so others can come and spend money, too. That should be our contribution to the viability of the downtown area.

My condo building has been here since 1982, when downtown Evanston was struggling to stay afloat. We patronized the downtown area businesses then, while others stayed away.

We shouldn't be penalized now that Evanston is thriving. Instead, we should finally be reaping the benefits!
-- Mimi L. Katz

Snow Emergency Ticketing Is 'Vicious'
Editor:

I was hoping at least one of our papers in town would report the real news after our first snowfall, but nowhere did I read how our City government collaborated to make this Christmas season a record windfall in fines against its citizens.

To gain a full measure of its impact, one only has to ask their neighbors if they received a ticket and were towed on any of the three nights after the storm. Without warning the police and ticket-writers, accompanied by a band of tow trucks, swooped into the neighborhoods as late as Saturday and Sunday night - a two and three full days after the storm - to unleash an unholy and vicious attack with tickets of $25, $50 and $100.

The City claims to have a system. If the system was supposed to be a well-designed and thought-out plan to keep the City's streets clear and passable it was a design straight from hell, as the residents of this fair town soon found out. How is it that such a plan was able to capture so many Evanstonians, if as the City suggests "everyone knew about it"?

The larger question would be just how much money did they nail their citizens for? I use the term "their citizens" loosely since so many of the City staff, police and ticket-writers don't actually live in Evanston.

That this damage was done to us in a season that most folks see as friendlier, it is alarming that the City can be so callous in their disregard of any such sentiments. Let's remember this come election time.
--John C. Thomson

Sham Snow Emergency
Editor:

The City of Evanston is outdoing itself in abusing snow parking regulations by declaring a non-existent snow emergency. Obviously, they are not content with simply issuing tickets to cars parked on the street after the snowplow has gone through (and when not a single flake of snow is in the forecast). As a home owner already paying an exorbitant amount of property tax, I cannot keep quiet while the City continues to put priorities in wrong places, namely, harassing its citizens.

The first snow storm of the 2006-07 season on Dec. 1 brought a few inches of accumulation on the ground, but by Saturday noon, much of the snow had melted.

Obviously, the absence of snow on the ground did not convince the City to lift the snow emergency and accompanying parking bans.

After all, why should they forego a chance to issue more parking tickets to generate revenue?

A fleet of tow trucks started making their appearances around noon in our neighborhood (2100 block on Sherman Avenue) on Dec. 2, and started removing cars parked on the even side of the street.

Furthermore, the City seems to apply the parking regulations in an inconsistent and arbitrary manner. While the City focused on sunny, dry Sherman Avenue to enforce the ridiculous parking bans, they completely neglected the snowier Gaffield Place.

If the City is sincerely concerned about the snow, wouldn't it be a better use of their resources to plow streets that remain in the shade most of the time and therefore where the snow takes much longer to melt?

We all know that snowplows leave mounds of snow at the curb. We accept that. But what's unacceptable is that snowplows leaving ridges of snow in the middle of the intersection.

They should get this snow out of this intersection before they start to tow parked cars!

As of this writing (5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2), the snow emergency has not been lifted, according to the City website. Does anyone in the City know the words "common sense"?
-- Mayumi Naramura

On Oct. 27 and Nov. 3 Nichols seventh- and eighth-graders took a day-long field trip to Springfield. Social Studies teachers Brian Sommer, Katie Foust and Erin Murphy and a host of volunteers chaperoned the trip. Here are some excerpts from essays and brief reflections about their experience.

The trip to Springfield was such a great experience. I learned so much about American history. I learned about Abraham Lincoln and how he went from a lawyer to one of the best presidents of all time. I got to see Abraham Lincoln's tomb and where he lived. I also got to see his little store.
-- Chris Greene, 7th grade

On the Springfield trip I learned that New Salem was very organized and developed. They had almost everything, a doctor, pharmacy, and a convenience store. At the Lincoln Memorial it was amazing to see where Lincoln was buried. Even at the Old Capital it was fun to see what people did before computers.
-- Bernetia Powell, 8th grade

I learned a lot of things in Springfield. One thing I learned was how people lived in New Salem, and that everything was made out of wood. I also learned that back in the 1800s Illinois was a slave state, even though it was considered a northern state. Also, I learned about how people lived, and the kinds of animals that were common back then. I learned about Abraham Lincoln at his tomb, where he and his family were buried also. I learned a lot.
-- Abby Bailey, 8th grade

The trip to Springfield really inspired me. It showed how much of a liberator Abe Lincoln was. I really learned a lot compared to what I already knew. If I could, I would go back to Springfield and learn more about Abe Lincoln and the town he grew up in.
--Julius Daye, 7th grade

One other place we went to was the old State Capital. The old State Capital had really cool stuff there. One of the rooms was the Supreme Court for Illinois. Another room was filled with old court cases. In that building they also had Abraham Lincoln's office. The tour guide there said it was almost the same as it was however many years ago.
-- Billy Prout, 8th grade

During the Springfield Trip I saw how different life was back then. You're always hearing and reading about the work that people did back then. It has a greater impact when you actually see it. I could tell that life back then was a lot rougher. In present days we have a lot of technology. I admire the citizens of New Salem for everything they had to do in order to get by.
-- Aijalon Walker, 8th grade

Our last stop for the trip was Lincoln's tomb, in a cemetery in Springfield. The space we went into that gave information about Lincoln was really beautiful. There were pictures, signs about him, and there were even stairs you could go up on to view the whole cemetery. Before we left, our tour guide told us that we could rub Lincoln's nose (no, not the real one, the one on a statue of his head) for good luck. The outer color had worn off though, from so many people wanting good luck, and Julia had to lift me up so I could get some good luck, too.
-- Hannah Schwimmer, 7th grade

We visited the Illinois State Museum. We learned about the geological layout and the history of the state. Did you know that Illinois was originally a French colony? And fluoride, the state mineral, is used in many things including mouthwash. To think, we're spitting a little bit of Illinois through our teeth every night.
-- Daniel Goering, 7th grade

In Springfield I learned how people in New Salem lived. Houses normally had one or two rooms, and the only way to see at night was with candles. I learned how wheels were made, and how long it took to do everyday things. I also learned the story about the travel to Springfield after Lincoln died. This trip to Springfield was fun, interesting and educational.
--Jocelyn Olea, 8th grade

The first place we went to was New Salem. At New Salem we learnt all the different jobs they had as well as the places they lived and all the different buildings they had, like the barn with the coop and pens for the animals. I learned that Lincoln lived in New Salem for a few years, and he was the owner of the first store.
-- Maddy Rauch, 7th grade

We went to Abe's tomb, it was gigantic. It had statues of him and inside had his tomb and his kids' tombs. He had flags on his tomb and his kids' tombs were in the wall. It was cool.
-- Eli Golden, 8th grade

I thought that the Illinois Museum was the most memorable thing in Springfield. There was lots of stuff to learn about Illinois. You could see what it was like when there were Native Americans and how teenage rooms were 100 years ago. I learned a lot about Lincoln and a lot about his tomb. In New Salem you could see the outside of Lincoln's store and learn about how people lived back then. Overall the trip was quite educational and helped me understand more about our state.
-- Dhwani Jain, 8th grade