A Clean Slate

Some of you probably remember staying after school to help the teacher clean the chalkboards. It could have been an altruistic motive or a disciplinary activity. Or it might have been an attempt to become the teacher's pet. Remember? Or would you rather forget? No doubt you also remember those awful screeches we could make with a fingernail on a blackboard?

There was something therapeutic in wiping those boards clean, and then washing them to further renew them. But then some wag would write something or draw an ugly picture and our noble efforts would be wasted.

Our senior moment could be that messy chalkboard with an indelible message etched on it. Possibly someone wrote a nasty message and signed our name. Or one of those Billy Loves Suzy and our name was either Bill or Suzy and we had little or no passion for each other. But there it stands, indelible in our mind, resisting all efforts and cleansers.

The New Year is traditionally a time for making resolutions, not breaking them. But break them we do. For this coming year, why not dig into your past, distant or recent, and uncover some of those messy or even nasty messages etched on your mind. Then, ceremoniously, clean the chalkboard, blow the chalk out of the eraser, and wipe the slate clean. This could replace making resolutions which are often ignored or broken.

Lately I have been having conversations with an old friend. After an absence of many years, our paths crossed. In the meantime, he had had some painful experiences and discovered that yours truly was a fairly good listener.

His problem was a messy blackboard, unerased, unwashed. Now it was haunting him. Endlessly. And perhaps needlessly. Seems that the damage was done, and most likely is irreparable now. Yet some etchings on his chalkboard are still indelible. There they are, staring him in the face. For him, it seems, it would be wise, not to try to cleanse the board but to throw it out. And what better time than when a new year is ushered in.

True, some memories are so ingrained, so indelible, so visible that removing them is almost as difficult as keeping resolutions made as a year ends. If a solution is highly unlikely, and time has marched on, this kind of a senior moment should not be continually nourished. In other words, he should quit looking at that ol' blackboard. Entering a new year is a great time to wipe the slate clean.

Nourishing old wounds is not much better than putting the blame on someone or something else. This is not an essay discouraging making amends. Rather, it is a plea to let bygones be bygones, particularly when there is little or nothing more that can be done.

We have enough negative senior moments without hanging on to them. Incidentally, if you're inclined to make some resolutions this year, how about adding this one? To the best of my ability, I hereby resolve to let useless, irritating, impossible, obsolete bygones be bygones.

Whether or not you make resolutions as this year comes to an end, do have a wonderful, fulfilling and exceptional 2008. If you do replace your chalkboard, get one of those newfangled ones that are colorful, easy to erase and replace if necessary. There is nothing quite like a clean slate.