New Year's Eve

I do not have New Year resolution to make. It's not that such resolution doesn't work – it does. However, why should we make resolutions simply to make ourselves feel better? Why should anyone? Does anyone? I don't, and I never did.

I turn forty next year. Come to think about it. It didn't take long for me to realize that I haven't had my baby until somewhere near the "half time" of my life. What I do at this point, as the panic mounts and I think about my age by the time my daughter graduates, is to stop. I stop just short of actually dropping dead from worrying. Then I think about something I really treasure. A beautiful Christmas gift, say, arriving long way after the festival is still much better than a run-of-the-mill box that arrived on time.

Thurgood Marshall, an eminent jurist who helped bring about the desegregation of America's schools, said it best when someone asked him what he wanted written on his tombstone: "He did the best he could with what he had."

It reminds me of a clinical trial I'd recently completed. The study design is almost impressive – except that it's not. I first launched the study around three years ago. Since then, the recommended treatment has really changed, leaving my treatment design obsolete. I sighed. Yet I know I did my best I could with what I had three years ago. I then tiptoed into writing up the study.

Let's move on. That's all any of us can do – try our best with what we have. Forget about the New Year resolution.