I recommend Frank Bruni's op-ed piece in today's New York Times, "These Wretched Vessels."
"We’re so much more than these wretched vessels that we sprint or swagger or lurch or limp around in, some of them sturdy, some of them not, some of them objects of ardor, some of them magnets for pity. We should make peace with them and remain conscious of that, especially at this particular hinge of the calendar, when we compose a litany of promises about the better selves ahead, foolishly defining those selves in terms of what’s measurable from the outside, instead of what glimmers within."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/opinion/bruni-these-wretched-vessels.html?ref=opinion