Indeed 2024 has been full of cruelty, injustice and suffering. But it has also been full of courage in the face insurmountable odds, refusal to despair, faith in our Creator of a level that we had only heard stories about in the scriptures. We have seen people stand up against injustice in places that at least I would never have thought possible. True it is, that hardship brings out the best in some people and the worst in others. We saw evidence of both. That is why I decided on the tagline in my New Year card –

“Happy Another Chance to get it right.”

Truly that is all that we get. All that we will ever get. Not only every time the earth makes a circle around our sun. But also, when it takes a turn around itself. Another chance to get it right this time. Get it right for ourselves by understanding that the only way is by making it right for everyone else.
To do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Because it is about us. Not about them. Not about anyone else. About us.

My dear friend and Sensei in Aikido, Julius Aib, sent me a picture of our class from 1994. Another friend asked me if I remembered any moves. I said that I did. But even more I remember the philosophy of being centered on yourself – living in the present always conscious of what you can do in the moment and doing it with total commitment. In Aikido there are no halfhearted moves. It is total commitment to the move, the stroke of the bokken or Katana. You win or lose based on the commitment of the move.

As we go forward into a new year, we have the opportunity to make a new world. The principles on which to make that new world are as old as time. That in a connected world, in any society, the welfare of the individual can only be achieved through the welfare of the collective. That is called kindness and compassion. That individual ambition must be redefined in terms of its effect on the collective. I can be happy only when others are happy. Anything else is called exploitation. It is the happiness of the vulture and the leech.

That in our world of cause and effect, peace is the effect and justice is its cause. To enjoy peace, we must establish justice. That until justice is established, any apparent peace is only a recess between wars. That what comes at the point of the sword or out of the barrel of a gun is death. Not peace. That we must change our role models and icons from conquerors of land and destroyers of people to conquerors of hearts and minds.

Values drive behavior and behavior drives results. Metrics are the best indicators of values. If you want to see what someone values, see what they measure. See how they define success. So, in this new year, let us examine our definition of success and redefine it to include peace, justice, harmony, and the welfare of everyone. Let us redefine the health of our society by the condition of the weakest. Not by the wealth of its most powerful. Define society by the number of poor and homeless with no access to education and healthcare, instead of by the number of billionaires and you will see how that will transform our societies. The healthiest, happiest, most noble society is the one in which no child goes to bed hungry. As J. Krishnamurthy said, “It is not a sign of health to be profoundly adjusted to a sick society.” We are very sick. We must cure ourselves before we perish.

I know that sounds idealistic. I am shamelessly idealistic. Every child is born an idealist. Every person begins life, work, marriage, or any stage of life, as an idealist. With a dream in their heart. With eyes shining. High energy, passionately wanting to change the world. Then life happens to them. And strike after strike, hardship, betrayal, and failure after another, their idealism gets dampened. They lower their standard and drop progressively from idealists, to optimists, then realists, then cynics, then pessimists, and finally, indifferent. The slide into oblivion. Into status quo. But the flame of idealism that they were born with is never extinguished, no matter how hard they or the world around them try. That flame will die only when the person dies.

That is the reason when you are idealistic, people will resist. They will tell you to ‘get real’ to ‘grow up’. They will ignore you, laugh at you, criticize you, fight you and then they will join you. They do all that before they join you because you remind them of what they had been like one day and your idealism forces them to face themselves and see what they did to themselves and how they allowed the flame of their idealism to fade. Not away, but fade. If they can shut you up; if they can dampen your flame, it justifies their actions in their sight and they can go back into their comfort zone living in echo chambers behind high walls, refusing to acknowledge their responsibility to drive change. But when you walk on, you don’t engage or fight back because you are too focused on your goal, that rekindles their flame, and they will join you.

In 2025, let us resolve to rekindle our flame of idealism, to invest in ourselves by investing in others, to work to change the lives of others because that is the only way to change our lives. Let us ensure that we do our best and use all our resources to ensure that nobody is left behind. As Mother Teresa said, “If you can’t feed a hundred, feed one.” Let us do whatever we can because the truth is that a day will come when we will stand before our Creator.

Then we will not be asked, “What happened?”
We will be asked, “What did you do?”