On the cusp of a new year

In just a few hours, 2009 will be in the past and, as I do at every year's end, I find myself pondering the possibilities inherent in a brand new year. I also like to think back on the lessons I learned in the year ending.

I'm not much for making New Year's resolutions. I think resolutions ought to be made and their achievement attempted as we go through our everyday lives. My faith teaches that I am to constantly "press toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus," in other words to make everything I do and say edify God in some way just as Christ did.

I'm not called to do this on January 1, but every day. And just as most people's resolutions begin to wane a few months into the new year as their old habits and the vagaries of life muddy up things, so do I struggle to make my daily words and deeds worthy of presentation to God.

It's hard, and I often fail. The difference, though, is that every minute becomes a fresh opportunity to right my wrong, fix what I broke, or seek forgiveness for a misdeed. A perpetual work in progress, to be sure.

Looking back into 2009, I offer up the things I learned -- in no particular order -- in the hope they might save someone else from having to learn similar lessons the hard, firsthand way:

Having a child in the hospital is worse than just about anything else, except maybe having a child off fighting in a war.

Homeschooling is still better than anything public or paid private education can offer.

A whole year of not watching TV has made ME smarter. (My kids have never watched.)

Growing older is not bad as long as you don't grow dumber. I don't fight the former, but I do the latter.

Anytime a politician makes a promise he or she will only be able to keep a precious fraction of it.

Atheists think those who believe in God are irrational. I think it's the other way around.

You really can overcome your fear of public speaking if you have something you passionately want to impart to others.

When it comes to old friends, you are fortunate to get a second chance at knowing them.

Suicide is still a bad idea.

It's true that children should be seen, but I think it's also important that they be heard.

One child is a blessing. Four children are more than I deserve. I am humbled.

Boys should always be different than girls and we'd do well as a culture to nurture that fact.

Every single day I wake up with the physical wherewithal to do the things that need doing is a gift of immeasurable value.

Our parents and grandparents learned to do more with less. My generation has managed to do the opposite and it pains me beyond words.

Faith without works is dead. But so are works without faith.

Income redistribution never solved anything.

No matter how much I don't have, I still have more than I need.

And finally, my all-time favorite saying still holds true: "He who hesitates is lost."

From China, just in time for Christmas

Nothing says Christmas like cheap junk from China. Unless it's one-sided advice.

The Copenhagen conference on climate change/global warming/upcoming apocalypse featured a Chinese official who earnestly counseled attendees on the importance of population control as a remedy for what ails us all.

Quoting from an article in the China Daily (12/10/09):

"Population and climate change are intertwined but the population issue has remained a blind spot when countries discuss ways to mitigate climate change and slow down global warming, according to Zhao Baige, vice-minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC) .

Although China's family planning policy has received criticism over the past three decades, Zhao said that China's population program has made a great historic contribution to the well-being of society.

As a result of the family planning policy, China has seen 400 million fewer births, which has resulted in 18 million fewer tons of CO2 emissions a year, Zhao said.

She admitted that China's population program is not without consequences, as the country is entering the aging society fast and facing the problem of gender imbalance.

"I'm not saying that what we have done is 100 percent right, but I'm sure we are going in the right direction and now 1.3 billion people have benefited," she said.

She said some 85 percent of the Chinese women in reproductive age use contraceptives, the highest rate in the world. This has been achieved largely through education and improvement of people's lives, she said.

And forced abortion, incentives to snitch on your pregnant neighbor, and imprisonment.

Oh, and let's not forget the orphanages throughout China crowded with abandoned babies (mostly girls) whose mothers could not safely or legally keep them.

For more on China's wonderful family planning program, Google the name Wei Linrong. Linrong, at 7 months into her pregnancy, was carted off to hospital by government officials and forcibly injected with poisons that resulted in a stillbirth.

The Virginia-based non-profit Population Research Council reports that of the more than 13 million abortions performed in China every year, most are forced and are the direct result of China's "one-child" policy.

Is this really what the world should embrace?