As most of us know the Dolphin is published on the third Friday of each month. Thankfully all months have one of those third Fridays. This year, that creates a befuddlement for me in writing about what is happening. The curious would ask why, those not so curious would wonder how many cards short of a deck is this writer.

The reason is simple. This year due to the way Fridays fall there are five Fridays between the January’s and February’s issue. January is the logical month to talk about New Year’s resolutions. By the time of the February issue Valentine’s Day will have passed.

It is like the old Roman date ides. Most of us know of this from Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” where the soothsayer told him to beware the ides of March. In the old Roman calendar ides was the middle of the month. The exact day depended on the month. The ides of March was when Julius was assassinated and that marked effectively the end of the republic and the start of the empire. It was one of histories unintended consequences.

Valentine’s Day falls on the middle Friday between issues. . So it is the ides of my dilemma. Both Resolutions and Valentines will be discussed.

As to resolutions is seems some 44% of the folks make them each year. I have found no statistic that mentions the percentages that are kept but the suspicion is that in many cases the consequences are unintendedly not kept. One of the most common is to lose weight or exercise more. Weight Watchers notwithstanding, those resolutions are not likely to be kept.

However, there are two types of resolution that appeal as probable. An author, Neil Gaiman, once wrote that he hoped his readers would try so many new activities and different efforts that they would make mistakes. Mistakes would indicate progress and improvement in all areas of your life. Now, that is a can do resolution, it seems to me that mistakes come naturally with new activities and efforts.

The other is to choose one word as your theme for the year and work it in all manner of actions the whole year. For one thing, it is easy to keep one word in mind and for another words, if really focused on, can have many subtle meanings and lead in many subtle directions. For instance how many different ways or situations do you think you could adapt to. For that matter, how many different ways could you adapt to a situation?

Well that leaves Valentine’s Day as a topic of discussion. We probably know that it is named after St. Valentine. But the ides of February were celebrated in some romantic or procreative way for years before there was a St. Valentine. Many of those Pagan rites were more Pagan than the card or candy that are traditional today. So, my suggestion is to stick with the card or candy. Just enjoy the romance of it.