January 2011 - Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues

Hello, my dear readers.  We are together again at last!  It's been 6 weeks since the completion of our Project for 2010 and, well, much has happened in those intervening weeks.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, kids home from college and the military - oh, and I filed for divorce.  So, while I have been suffering from intermittent blogging DTs, I have had much to occupy my mind.

However, we are now at a new year, are we not - and it's time to start afresh, anew, and any other a-word you can think to insert here.  Our 2011 Project, as you may recall, is to subject our willing subject (me) to a series of 12 experiments, each designed to improve said willing subject (me) in some fashion; all for your entertainment.  And to start it all off, we feature a Founding Father - Mr. Benjamin Franklin.

When he wasn't inventing bifocals, flying kites in the rain, and causing general hate and discontent amongst the British, Mr. Franklin was the Tony Robbins of the 18th century.  He whittled his life goals down to a set of 13 virtues, which he listed in a little notebook and carried around with him, like a paper Blackberry.  At the end of the day, he would enter a contemplative mode (which, I'm sure, included beer - because Benjamin Franklin was really into beer) and check off the virtues that he managed to live out over his day.  That Ben, he really knew how to shake it up.

A full list of the 13 virtues can be found here.  And in this list lies our January project.  To the joy and/or annoyance of all those who may come in contact with me, I will take a virtue from the list and endeavor to "live it out" as completely as possible for 2 days.  I have a nifty calendar all set up so that we can get through all 13 in January, and we will start on Monday the 3rd.  To be as authentic as possible, I will carry my own little notebook, but I will skip the beer part, because frankly, I hate beer.  OOOH - did you see that?  I made a pun!  "Frankly," I hate beer.  And we are talking about Benjamin "Frank"lin. 

Ahem.

Anyhow, that's the deal.  I predict that some virtues will be much easier than others.  Let the mayhem ensue.