A New Year’s non-resolution

By Catherine Rogers

  This New Year, people around Somerville won‚Äôt plunge into 2006 with rose-tinted visions of keeping resolutions.
  Residents and workers this year are avoiding the traditional, paper-thin pledges like losing weight, quitting cigarettes and exercising in favor of broad commitments to their lives. But some skip conscious changes altogether and choose to accept life as it unfolds regardless of negative implications.
   ‚ÄúAt my age, just getting up in the morning the next day is fine,‚Äù said Tom DuRoss as he serviced an escalator at the Davis Square T station. DuRoss, 51, said that in 2006, he will look forward to retiring ‚Äì in nine or 10 years.

    ‚ÄúThis is a young man‚Äôs game,‚Äù he said, looking down at the passing escalator.
    For Somerville resident Maria Parivello, 2006 will bring her a little closer to her family in Naples, Italy. She has spent three years away from them and looks forward to a visit to her home country this June.
   The sooner 2005 is in Parivello‚Äôs past, the better.  ‚ÄúI wish next year will be better. There was too much trouble this year. Too many problems in the world,‚Äù she said.
    Not everyone strives for improvement, though. Jim Burnham just wants his recent barrage of positive changes to stick in 2006.
    The end of this year brought a logjam of changes. He moved into a new apartment, met a nice girl, and will begin a new job at Harvard University on Jan. 3. 
    ‚ÄúIf those things keep going well, I‚Äôll be pretty OK in 2006,‚Äù said Burnham, a Somerville resident. ‚ÄúMaking a resolution hasn‚Äôt really occurred to me.‚Äù
     Some aren‚Äôt making any changes at all, consciously or otherwise.
     As mother and daughter Marie Valcin and Melissa Charles sorted through a heap of clothing at the Highland Laundromat, neither was interested in making a resolution. To Valcin, it‚Äôs a question of faith. Nobody knows what the New Year will bring, she said, ‚Äúonly God knows. He knows everything.‚Äù
     Her daughter agreed. ‚ÄúWhatever happens, happens,‚Äù she said.
    ‚ÄúI don‚Äôt believe in resolutions. I think if you want to change something about yourself you don‚Äôt need a new year to do it,‚Äù said Emily Vanderpol from behind the counter at J.P. Licks ice cream shop in Davis Square. But, she added, ‚ÄúI have been trying to eat less ice cream.‚Äù