When I say DEI, right now some will react with mistrust or hostility. Others will react to any questioning of DEI as the product of one or more ugly “isms.” That’s a big problem, of course, because reacting can feel like thinking and even lead people to replace the second with the first. I’ve done it too. I have some thoughts on DEI as an educator and an American that have surfaced over the past few months. As someone who tries to see the pros and cons, here’s what I found in my thinking process.

The final weeks of December are the coldest, darkest weeks of the year, with the longest nights (if one lives in the Northern Hemisphere and outside the tropics, that is). There is something about that last week of the year, between Christmas and the New Year, in which the traditional notion of self-reflection and resolution holds great appeal.

I like New Year’s Resolutions. I know most people don’t “stick with it,” and that the gyms will empty out and the baked goods aisles will pick up in a couple of weeks, followed a couple of weeks later by the beer aisles and the liquor stores when “Dry January” comes to its inevitable end. The fact that most people try to make changes and fail almost doesn’t matter, in a way, because it’s the motivation—self-reflection, self-improvement, and “cleaning up the mess,” that matters. If you try to make a change enough times, it’s because you want (or need) to; eventually thinking it through and trying different things is more likely to lead to a successful effort toward enduring change.