Article December 26, 2005 Issue

'UNLESS THERE IS A NEW MIND...'

BY RICHARD NENNEMAN

IT'S POPULAR to make fun of New Year's resolutions. Sometimes we even kid each other about how long it takes to break them. Yet, many people do take stock of themselves at the turn of the year, and sometimes do make resolutions they take seriously.

Have you ever stopped to think that this habit lies at least partly in the innate human feeling that it is right and normal for us to expect progress?

In his book The Gifts of the Jews (Nan A. Talese/Anchor Books, 1998), Thomas Cahill makes the point that before the time of Abraham, the cultures of those days believed that life is cyclical—that just as the seasons repeated themselves, all life was just like a turning of the wheel. At that time, one generation had no reason to think that its life experience would differ from the generation preceding it. In more primitive times, it was challenge enough for the human race just to reproduce itself. Among the Greeks, history was looked upon not as progressive, but as cyclical, eventually returning to what had already been. It was Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, who was called to go forth and start something new, even though he didn't know exactly what his adventure would lead to.