by brenton crozier
With the calendar click to 2008, so many of us think of a new start, a lot of changes and the resolutions that we will surely make and then watch dissolve by Valentine’s Day. The idea of a clean slate and new lease on life is a promising, but often hollow one. So what is it, other than our self-reliance, conviction, higher power, friends or family, that we should turn to? You got it, the Internet. I can hardly believe that so many generations found self worth and the willingness to better themselves without the World Wide Web.
I decided to make this a true online experiment without having picked sites to write about ahead of time. We will let the search engines do the work of the divine and point us in the right direction. Among these heavenly search portals, no deity reigns more supreme than Google. Let’s do some good, let’s change some lives.
The first website that came up was indeed www.anewstartonlife.com. ANSOL is a benevolent organization in Michigan that finds homes for dogs that need them. You can adopt or donate and even learn about the disconcerting practices of puppy mills. Not exactly the type of thing that is ripe for parody or gives you that surge to change, but is important work and may even give you that new altruistic mission you have been looking for. Homeless dogs need love too.
In the type of vast shift that can only take place on the Internet, the next site down in this search query, http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01dec_1.htm, discusses NASA’s International Space Station. It is said that you can see it from Earth because it reflects sunlight. What is more compelling than an advance in technology reaching to the cosmos? Feeling bummed about debt, your old lady leaving you or that gut that came out of nowhere over the last 8 years? Pull up a chair, relax and peer into the night or early morning sky and give a wave to the station. It may not pay it off, bring her back or make it return to slim status, but it may make your problems feel small and more manageable, if only for a moment, but we all need those moments. The site helps you track the ISS and gives information on the best times to look for it.
Other types of sites that appeared were the New Start Lifestyle Program about reversing diabetes and heart disease, a site called Working Wardrobes that gives a new start to survivors of domestic violence and The News Star–North Louisiana’s Top News Source. Whether you’re fighting a harsh ailment, looking for charitable work to participate in or want to know everything going on in Northern Louisiana, you can start by searching “A new start.”
The top listing for this query is targeted at foster parents—http://fosterparenting.suite101.com/article.cfm/new_year_resolutions. Now that is truly the Lord’s work. Interested in this much life changing? If you’re not equipped to properly administer love and care for a child at this juncture, you could start with a dog and work your way up. My family once had foster children, but unfortunately to the detriment of my back, the young boy was a biter, but don’t let that sour you. What follows is a series of tips for not only setting, but keeping life changing resolutions—http://www.enotalone.com/article/2904.html.
For the most part, they are the same platitudes that get thrown around at political debates and Hallmark stores on a regular basis, but you may find that one thing that lights your fire. In particular, I like http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-a-Life-Changing-Resolution. This is the anti-list that instructs you to be non-committal, unrealistic, selfish and to steal resources because “Why recreate the wheel?”
The New Year can either signify a major chance to make anew or simply be relative in the scheme of life, but it never hurts to try something new, look at something differently or take on a new challenge—and the web may just be that place to find out what that’s going to be, but probably not. Happy New Year.
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