Magyar News, 1994. szeptember-1995. augusztus (5. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1995-01-01 / 5. szám
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS Dr. Alexander Havadtoy It is only natural that we ask ourselves at the beginning of a new year: What will it bring forth? While we ask this question, we are made aware that we can actually know nothing in a real sense about the future. It lies before us as an unexplored continent, mysterious, full of uncertainty about the kinds of utterly unforeseen things that can take place. Some of us may be making resolutions in these days. What could we resolve as individuals and as members of the Hungarian- American colony? I would like to suggest two: There are things that we need to forget, and there are things that we need to remember. There are some things that we need to forget as we come into the new year. The first I would suggest for us is to learn to forget our resentments when our brothers or sisters make great advances either in business, commerce, or the professions. We need to let go of these resentments because they poison both our individual and our national lives. We need a way to cultivate the art of letting go our resentments. Let the new year provide us with an opportunity to rejoice in the successes of our compatriots and immediate neighbors, and rise up as new men and women. Secondly, I would suggest that we forget our worries about the welfare of our own lives and that of our own people here in America and also in the Old Country. That is not to say we should never have any concern about tomorrow. Intelligent concerns and plans are necessary. But many times we give way to dark pessimism concerning the future of our individual and national well-being that cripples us and crushes us down to the ground. Constant worry is a disguised kind of atheism, because it is an affirmation that we really do not believe in the guiding and supporting power from above that has sustained us. We could also leant to forget about our privileges, particularly when we visit the Old Country or when we receive old friends and relatives from the other side of the great ocean. To pretend that we are privileged persons, better and richer than they are is downright foolish and uncouth. Instead of expecting them to admire and to accolade us, we need to turn around and see what we can do to care for the needs of others. The highest dignity comes from a true desire to seek to serve, possibly with anonymity. We also need to learn to forget about our individual and national failures. We are perfectly aware of our many mistakes and foolish bungles. However, it would be just as wrong to focus our lives exclusively on our difficulties, failures, and lost opportunities and not on the newness of life which lies before us, and what we could be, what we could do, and what we could become. We also need to learn to forget our achievements. Sometimes we focus too much on thinking what we have invented, attained and accomplished as individuals and as a nation. Are we aware of the ill feelings and jealousy that this might-create in others? Is it not better to forget where we are and be open to what others can call us to be? But what are some of the things that we need to remember? As individuals, we need to remember the paradoxical nature that we have. Sometimes we do good and sometimes we do evil. Sometimes we are rebellious, and we deliberately take that avenue. Sometimes we fail because we have taken the wrong way, and we may not know at that particular moment that it is the path that leads to destruction or difficulty. But we go that way anyway. However divine providence gives us new opportunities to begin again and again. And we should never forget this. We hope that in the new year we will remember our own or our parents ’ or grandparents’ humble beginnings in this blessed new land. We dare not forget that we or they arrived with one suitcase and will not take away anything if the summons comes to meet our Maker in the new year. We will remember the difficult times we have experienced in the past. If we do not remember them, then we shall never learn any lessons from them. As we remember them we will see what there was in this experience or ( Continued) HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our readers BOLDOG U JEVET minden kedves olvasónknak
