As in from where the fruit rarely falls far. In this case, the saying applies to many things.
Meet one of the authors of the misery of many.
Philip Ochieng pens a perceptive column regarding New Year’s resolutions while managing to throw a little Kenyan politics into the mix—his usual subject matter.
Of course, tomorrow people will cross their hearts and swear solemnly that, in 2004, they will never do the things that they did in 2003. But, of course, by January 2, they will have broken all those vows. [SNIP]
We approach it [each January first] with profound sentiment and baited breath because - imagining that it is a really material line, we are convinced that we are about to find something beyond ordinary on the other side of the line. [SNIP]
But, though reason is our vocation, the human mind is constituted to behave reasonably far less than 50 per cent [sic] of its career. That is why, the next time we approach January 1, we are just as excited as the last time. We never learn that whatever we want to be after January 1, we can become it every other day of the year if we make a genuine effort…Considering that my father is a communist, an atheist, is anti-American and--to his credit--anti-European, I had predicted that the first time I featured one of his columns here would be to hold it up for a gleeful, upstart fisking. Maybe next time.

