Grinding Out New Year Resolutions

Underneath the city of Boston lies a maze of subway tunnels that follow byzantine paths which connect ideosyncratically organized underground subway stations. The majority of this system was designed over a century ago and cemented into place with brutalist finality using tons of bricks, basalt rock and granite.

When a train of subway cars bends into a subway station, it’s steel wheels grind against unyielding steel rails until it finally comes to rest at a crowded platform. After an expectant moment of quietude, the subway doors slam open and a mad crush of old ideas are cast out to wherever old ideas go and a plethora of new ideas crowd in to the disordered vacancy. After a despairingly short time the doors slam shut again and in a whoosh of electrically motivated transference the subway train begins its teleological journey on to the next destination. 

The Boston subway system forms a fitting metaphor for my annual resolutioning activities.  Partly this is due to the ear splitting chaos generated at each node of transportation which was slightly more suggestive of a slow motion train wreck than a smooth mental transition.  And partly it is for the regularity and immutability of the entire process which, when observed from the distance of career retirement, is more remarkable for the broader journey than each individual destination.