The Way I See It - New Year's Day musings

The Way I See It
By Doug Dickerson
Staff Writer
December 27, 2006

The year’s at the spring and day’s at the morn,
Morning’s at seven’
The hillsides dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snails on the thorn:
God’s in his heaven –
All’s right with the world!
-Robert Browning

I joined some co-workers for lunch the other day at the Barony House. As we waited for a table, our conversation turned to that New Year’s Day tradition of eating Hoppin’ John. The saying, as I understand it is, “Eat poor that day, eat rich the rest of the year. Rice for riches and peas for peace”.

I read up on my history of eating Hoppin’ John and it seems that it is supposed to bring good luck and wealth. It was the custom for children to gather in the dining room as the dish was brought forth and hop around the table before sitting down to eat. I also learned that a man named John came “a-hoppin” when his wife took the dish from the stove. An obscure South Carolina custom was inviting a guest to eat by saying, “Hop in, John.” The dish goes back to at least as far as 1841, when according to tradition, a crippled black man who was known as Hoppin’ John, hawked it in the streets of Charleston.

After reading the ingredients of Hoppin’ John (2 cups of dried black-eyed peas, cold water, 1-pound lean slab bacon or 1 pound meaty ham hocks, etc…) one might need the riches to help pay the cardiologist. One recipe I read said, “Before preparing dried beans, sort through them thoroughly for tiny pebbles or other debris.” I’m sorry, but it seems to me, the good luck one may have in eating this Hoppin’ John concoction is in not eating pebbles or debris or needing an angioplasty afterward.

I am not trying to slam Hoppin’ John or the people who eat it; I understand and respect the rich tradition and practice of such a custom. I realize most won’t believe me, but I was raised in the south, despite not having a taste for grits or Hoppin’ John. The only mental picture I come away with in regards to Hoppin’ John is poor old John trying to hop away from this heart attack stew and get to the good stuff – football, chips, dip, sandwiches and some cold drinks.

I don’t know about you, but New Year’s Day resolutions have always annoyed me. Yes, we all should strive to be better persons in the new year than we were in the previous. However, we make the same old resolutions year in and year out, and before we sing “Happy Birthday” to the Presidents in February, the resolutions have been abandoned or forgotten. The tried and true, “I am going to lose weight” resolution went out the door on day one with those two bowls of Hoppin’ John.

While resolutions serve a momentary purpose of trying to focus us on some worthwhile goals, life for most goes on as usual. Resolutions are made, life gets busy and before we know it, it’s time to make new resolutions concerning the things we didn’t resolve in the past year. The cycle perpetuates itself.

I googled the Top 10 New Year’s resolutions and what annoyed me the most is that out of the Top Ten resolutions, only two of them — 1: Spend more time with family and friends, and 9: Help others — was in any way related to anything beyond navel-gazing. It’s hard to make the world a better place when we have selfishly placed ourselves in the center of it.

Each of us faces the new year with time honored traditions and practices and hopes for the coming year. My hope and prayer is that in the coming year our resolutions can be replaced with purposes that propel us to causes greater than ourselves. My prayer for you is that you will have the health, family, friends, love and means to do it.
Happy New Year!

©Summerville Journal-Scene 2006