The Year of Rome

A few years ago my good friend, designer, photographer, web guru, adventurer and all-round extraordinary person, Beth Cherry, introduced me to the concept of a theme for a year. Unlike New Year's resolutions, the theme is an attempt to set the tone for the upcoming year, sort of like expectations.

I tried it a few times and found it fun and useful to have a theme for a year. Last year I didn't decide on a theme and the year was definitely adrift. In retrospect I named 2007 the Year Adrift.

Actually, I had one major goal for 2007 and that was to attend the 21st World Scout Jamboree in England as a staff member and that I did. But, the remainder of the year consisted, basically, of "before jamboree" and "after jamboree."

For 2008 I have a theme in mind and it comes from a strange source: NetFlix. Last year Claire enrolled me in NetFlix as a "gift" and signed me up for an initial subscription of movies. NetFlix is a subscription service that delivers CD's by request and you can queue up a bunch of CD's to be delivered in sequence as you receive them, watch them and return them.

Lately, I've been watching the HBO series "Rome." I've enjoyed "Rome" and I'm now into the second season.

It was "Rome" that gave me the idea for a theme for 2008.

According to the old maxim, Rome wasn't built in a day.

That is to say, rather than trying to accomplish a big project in a short time, it might be better to accomplish a greater number of smaller projects over a longer period of time.

For example, rather than spending an entire weekend cleaning up the garage, why not spend a few hours over several weekends to do the same thing.

Thus was born 2008, The Year of Rome.

The idea is to spend a small amount of time each day on a small project around the house or on the job in the hopes of making a big impact in the long run. Normal maintenance things don't count, so doing the laundry is not Roman, while grouting the bathroom sink is definitely Roman.

Well, that's the theory, at least.

And, who knows? We might end the year with a Twelve Two Two Fondue toga party! Definitely Roman.