New Year, New Goals

The picture above is Steven's taken at Living Waters in North Carolina

I don’t care about New Year Resolutions since I am not great on following through with big vague ideas.  Resolutions like losing weight, or be a better photographer have no clear path to success for me.

After hearing an interview with astrophysicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, I decided to try something different.  In the interview, Tyson stated (I paraphrase) that as we get older our bodies don’t grow, but our mind can continue to grow and learn.  He went on to explain that the more we learn, the more we can make previously unknown connections with things, and think things never thought of. This intrigued me.

Taking it a step further, I purchased a journal.  My main goal for 2026 is to learn and record something new I learn each day from conversations with people, reading, or videos, etc.  Topics can be anything.

A few cool things (to me) I have newly learned are:

1.    The planet Uranus was first named George. Can you imagine chanting in school the planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, George, and Neptune. Steven says that George is still a better name than Uranus.

2.    Crows can count. I have so many follow-up questions to this.

3.    Lines of longitude are used to help determine the Earth’s time zones.  Since all the lines come together somewhere near the north and south poles, these two points on Earth, technically, don’t have a time zone, or have all the time zones.  I guess if you lived there, you might have more pressing problems than knowing the time.

Right now, I feel like my daily tidbits are more Trivial Pursuit than in-depth learning.  But I must admit, I have been so excited to learn, and many of these knowledge gems have sparked a desire to know more.  Doesn’t the best learning occur when you are excited and engaged? I hope this mindset will carry over to other areas in my life, including photography.

For now, Steven and I wish you and your family a happy, prosperous, and healthy New Year.