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I gave up writing New Years’ resolutions many years ago. It seemed I put more effort into making them than keeping them. That’s not to say that I don’t resolve to accomplish great things during the year; I do. And 2014 was a good year in that respect.

Among others, I resolved to travel more, and I did. The big event was an 18 day adventure in Argentina that included many kilometers driven on gravel roads, hikes into remote mountain lakes, and “up close and personal” with one of the world’s most iconic glaciers. Other travel took me back to my homeland, into some National Parks, to a coastal Canadian hideaway, and the bloodiest three-day battlefield in our nation’s history.

I also resolved to write more, and I did. My Tesla book returned to stores and to sales that surpassed even its first year, while a second Tesla book hit the electronic airwaves. A magazine feature, two articles on the Smithsonian Civil War studies site, and an article on Lincoln’s math skills in The Lincolnian all joined dozens of short articles on three separate blogs.

And yet there were unresolved resolutions as well. While I did travel, I wanted to travel more exotically. While I did write, I wanted to finish the Lincoln book proposal and have it in the hands of a publisher. While I did spend time with old friends and met new ones, I wanted to do more of both.

Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address called on all of us to “here highly resolve” to accomplish “the unfinished work” that remained. While certainly I can’t equate resolving to achieve my own unfinished work with the higher cause Lincoln extolled, “in a larger sense,” I can strive for “a new birth of freedom” to travel, to write, and to ensure that “the people” who mean the most to me don’t perish from my Earth.

© David J. Kent 2014

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time.

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