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urbpanI don't know what this new year will bring with it. I see it as a bridge year, where big changes that are going to happen in the following year will get their start.
The kid is going to start her Senior year in high school in September; This means that changes that have been put off until she moves on with her life will have to be confronted. The pressure to avoid another New England winter will push very hard at our roots.
Then there's the promise of a new Presidential Administration, and the incredible challenges that this young man will have to lead our country through. I still have hope, and I'm still optimistic that this new inclusive, unity-building kind of presidency can make some real positive changes. We have to be prepared for the fact that Obama simply can't do all the things that were promised in the campaign, but that he is a better leader for our challenges than Bush, Cheney, McCain, and many others. Hillary will have a major role in restoring the world's confidence in the United States, and I'm happy to see Bill Richardson and other prominent democrats in the cabinet. I hope Obama's selection of republicans for certain roles will help bring unity, and encourage the right wing to try to work with the Administration, rather than attempting to stonewall everything they do.
As far as the decision to include Rick Warren in the inauguration, Adam Felber has some encouraging words about that.
I don't have a blog project for 2009, and even though I agonized over it in 2008 and ended up with a collection of small unfinished projects, I'm not going to let it bother me. I like where this liejournal thing is now. It offers me a good place to express myself in a variety of ways, and I love the constant input from and dialogue with lj friends and "anonymous."
I'm thinking I might do a picture a day thing, just to keep me looking around. Miz Geek's shopping cart series was very inspiring. She took pictures of this abandoned shopping cart in the swamp near her house, and this morning posted the whole year. Locked in ice in January, anchoring amphibian eggs in April, dry in July and submerged again in August. A man made object thrust into nature; a piece of garbage from on viewpoint, but so much more in that series of photos.
I don't usually thing of the calendar year as being so important as other turning points in the year. If I had my way, the Spring Equinox would be the new year mark. Two weeks into the winter makes no sense at all.
It's pretty out there today, and I'm glad to have the day off. We'll walk the dogs in the snow, but will probably cuddle and watch Heroes for most of it. Happy New Year everyone.
The kid is going to start her Senior year in high school in September; This means that changes that have been put off until she moves on with her life will have to be confronted. The pressure to avoid another New England winter will push very hard at our roots.
Then there's the promise of a new Presidential Administration, and the incredible challenges that this young man will have to lead our country through. I still have hope, and I'm still optimistic that this new inclusive, unity-building kind of presidency can make some real positive changes. We have to be prepared for the fact that Obama simply can't do all the things that were promised in the campaign, but that he is a better leader for our challenges than Bush, Cheney, McCain, and many others. Hillary will have a major role in restoring the world's confidence in the United States, and I'm happy to see Bill Richardson and other prominent democrats in the cabinet. I hope Obama's selection of republicans for certain roles will help bring unity, and encourage the right wing to try to work with the Administration, rather than attempting to stonewall everything they do.
As far as the decision to include Rick Warren in the inauguration, Adam Felber has some encouraging words about that.
I don't have a blog project for 2009, and even though I agonized over it in 2008 and ended up with a collection of small unfinished projects, I'm not going to let it bother me. I like where this liejournal thing is now. It offers me a good place to express myself in a variety of ways, and I love the constant input from and dialogue with lj friends and "anonymous."
I'm thinking I might do a picture a day thing, just to keep me looking around. Miz Geek's shopping cart series was very inspiring. She took pictures of this abandoned shopping cart in the swamp near her house, and this morning posted the whole year. Locked in ice in January, anchoring amphibian eggs in April, dry in July and submerged again in August. A man made object thrust into nature; a piece of garbage from on viewpoint, but so much more in that series of photos.
I don't usually thing of the calendar year as being so important as other turning points in the year. If I had my way, the Spring Equinox would be the new year mark. Two weeks into the winter makes no sense at all.
It's pretty out there today, and I'm glad to have the day off. We'll walk the dogs in the snow, but will probably cuddle and watch Heroes for most of it. Happy New Year everyone.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 01:16 pm (UTC)Happy new year!
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Date: 2009-01-01 01:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 02:17 pm (UTC)i totally agree with that guy about the rick warren thing. let's be inclusive. i didn't know warren had invited obama to speak at his church - that is very interesting.
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Date: 2009-01-01 02:57 pm (UTC)Didn't mean nothin' by it. If anything I'm a bit too honest on here.
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Date: 2009-01-01 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 02:58 pm (UTC)I could not agree more!
Enjoy your cuddle time. I'm hoping to get a bit of that in myself today, with any luck at all. ;)
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Date: 2009-01-01 07:31 pm (UTC)Wait a minute..."the kid?" I've been reading your journal for...um, some multiple number of years now--since January 29, 2006, according to Semagic (seems longer than that)--and this is the first I ever recall you mentioning having a kid. I know about your wife, your dad, a brother, the dog (lotsa pictures of the dog), a few people at work, and numerous plant and animal neighbors, but nothing about a daughter.
I liked the Felber article.
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Date: 2009-01-01 07:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 09:36 pm (UTC)I enjoy reading your blog every day... I wouldn't want you to change it... but, while reading today's post I came up with a few ideas that you.. *could* do if you wanted to,
You could mimic Miz Geek and take pictures of an object, or a scene, every month--or everyday. At the end of the year, it might be interesting to put them all together in a video. Like those people who take a picture of themselves everyday, but with more nature and less morning breath. ;)
Or... You seemed to enjoy your "list a good thing from today" posts... it might ruin it to try and do that for a whole year... but at the same time, it might encourage a more positive outlook on life in general. Who knows. Just a thought, anyway.
I'll be perfectly happy if you do nothing and just continue as usual. :)
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Date: 2009-01-01 10:23 pm (UTC)We'll see what happens. :)
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Date: 2009-01-02 01:49 am (UTC)Just wanted to mention WHY I enjoyed your blog--you make me think about things I'd never thing about for very long, and I often find myself learning about things--like banana slugs--that I'd never given too much thought to before. Your posts tend to be about things I enjoy, or am curious about, or things that I COULD enjoy or become curious about. It's a beautiful thing, to me, and I wanted to thank you for that.
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Date: 2009-01-15 11:50 am (UTC)It's just semantics; it's liberal kowtowing ("Let's be gentlemanly and magnanimous and they will too."), and it misidentifies the root of the problem. Which is not that the Left has mistreated the Right . . . not that people aren't listening enough to each other's point of view . . . but that the "religious" Right, at least, refuses categorically to accept the right of the Left to exist. To them, the Left are demons. Atheists. Whatever. Wrong and hateful.
They are the enemy. THey have co-opted the country in defiance of the law. They have prated on and on about how only they are moral, about how only they are patriotic . . . that only they are religious is a rock-bottom conviction.
There should not be a Xian invocation at all at the inauguration, or at any meeting of either house of Congress, or in any statehouse. It's a violation of the Establishment Clause to have any religion give its blessing to governmental sessions in that way. But we have to suffer that because the Left didn't have the backbone to say "no."
But the majority of Xians in this country are not fundamentalists. A large number believe in gay rights. The majority believe in allowing other religions to co-exist with theirs. One of them should have been chosen. In this huge country, with its lionizing of leaders and big-mouths and pundits, you can't tell me they couldn't find one mainstream Xian leader to give this invocation?
One thing the election was about was finally saying to the fundies--and the Catholics who ally themselves with them--"No, you do not get to define morality and call the shots on policy any longer."
This--and to a lesser extent, appointing Republicans to Cabinet positions--betrays that trust.
Unless of course one thinks of the rights of gay people as a side issue, a triviality. In that case I hope the promise to change the health-care system is kept very fast and very thoroughly indeed. Because people are still dying for lack of a marriage certificate.
. . . Sorry, some things are too serious to just agree to disagree. I really hope this presidency brings change. It was lovely to see people vote this guy in. But he ain't perfect and there are a lot of slips between cup and lip.
And I'd wondered about the daughter references too, but had guessed right :-)
M