New Year's Eve 2006

As New Year's Eve takes shape, I sit alone in this room and think about both past and future--not only this year that has passed like highway beneath my wheels but also other New Year's Eves back across my lifetime. I remember a couple of celebrations during my years in Nashville. The best was probably a big party at the Chesshir house on Michigan Avenue. A couple of years I drank some champagne early in the evening (the first time not knowing and the second time forgetting that it gives me a terrible headache) and then spending the rest of the evening, including the countdown, in bed. Several celebrations have found me on stage in some bar, playing three or four one-hour sets, interrupted somewhere in the middle by a rendition of "Auld Lang Syne." By contrast, I've had some quiet New Year's Eves, and this one is shaping up to be one of the quietest of all. I've eaten too many chocolate chip cookies this afternoon, so I'm a little sick at my stomach. But it's only 6:51, so I'm hoping to recover in time to have a beer around midnight.

(Picture for Dennis C.) I was thinking about making two nice clean lists of the "best" and "worst" of 2006, but then I decided not to for a couple of reasons. First, the best and worst of life comes at us in such a jumble--the best and worst sometimes even being the same thing--that two separate lists don't represent life that well. Second, I'm afraid that the list of worsts would overwhelm the bests, and I don't want to see that as clearly as two distinct lists would present it.

So, without any sort of chronologizing or prioritizing, without any arrangement by event or idea or situation, without any distinction made between the personal and the global levels (and everything in between), here's a rather random and incomplete list of the best and worst of 2006:

• best--I've enjoyed blogging over the past few months. This activity has done several good things for me. I've been writing when I have little time to write. The composition of a novel or book or essay or short story requires a commitment of time and energy that I haven't had recently. Blogging has allowed me to keep writing short pieces that not only keep me in practice but help me understand my experiences and idea. It also keeps me in touch with friends, to some extent at least. I know people are reading, so at least some communication is taking place.
• best--Although I haven't really paid that much attention to them, I'm impressed with the celebraties who are speaking up and reaching out toward the unfortunate. I'm glad to see them participating in something that isn't based on shallow work and glittery image.
• worst--While I'm pleased that celebraties are seeminly reaching out to the more unfortunate in the world, they're doing so in quite glamorized and romanticized ways--adopting children from Africa and such. That's all well and good, but what about the children who live on streets near their mansions? What about the people living in the woods?
• worst--Nationalism, politics and religion continue to be the forces that drive us and distract us. We continue to believe that because we're American or Republican or Democrat or Christian that we are right always and about everything. I don't call for relativism as the best thing, but I do believe we could improve this world--for the people who live in our woods and for the people of Darfur and Iraq--by doing what is just and humane rather than what is in the best interests of our nation, our party, our religion.
• best--Cherokee United Methodist Church entered a new building and a new life as a congregation!
• worst--War and terror and poverty (economic and spiritual) haunt us on a global scale. I know it's not scripted in the scripture that this world will know peace, but I always imagined we would be better than this. While we might have expected the world to move closer together as our understanding of the global and our ability to communicate with one another improved, things are falling apart at a frightening rate.
• worst--Saddam Hussein is dead, and I don't feel a bit better about the world in which I live.
• best--My circle of friends has expanded this year. In the real world, this has taken place, as might be expected, mostly at work and at church. But I've also developed friendships with folks in cyber space as well.
• worst--While my circle of friends has expanded, my circle of close friends has narrowed. One I have long depended on and one for which I had great hopes have faded.
• best--My work is going well.
• worst--My work is going so well that I'm getting more and more involved in admistration, which leaves me less time for teaching and writing.
• best--I've had a great time playing in the band at church. It's been such a long time since music played such a consistent part in my life.
• worst--Our world tends to be run by people who think only of themselves and their ilk, who think that what's best for them will work best for everybody. That's stupid.
• worst--While some pockets of our culture are improving, showing real commitment and interest is what is worthwhile, our broader culture seems to be becoming stupider by the day.
• best (and last . . . for now)--God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.