2010 - AVE ATQUE VALE

Today is the last day of 2010.

Janus, the Roman god for whom the month of January is named, was a two-faced deity able to look back at the past and forward to the future simultaneously. Appropriately enough, he was believed to preside over doors and gates as well as time... for what is each day but a gateway between that which has been and that which will be?

Janus as portrayed by Elisson.

This is that day that, Janus-like, I dwell upon both the retrospective and the prospective: the looks back and ahead.

Like every year, 2010 has been a mixture of bitter and sweet. We’ve said farewell to loved ones - my uncle Phil, SWMBO’s great-aunt Dorothy - and public figures too numerous to list here. The country’s economy continues to limp along while politicians and members of the general public spew venom at one another, fiddlefucking around while Rome burns. Hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, and winter storms continue to exact their toll on us puny humans.

And yet...

New life is everywhere. Young people get married, have babies, build households. People lose their jobs, find new ones. Technology grows apace, and people fill the emptiness in their lives with gadgetry and flash, while at the same time creating new ways to connect and reconnect. The old withers in both hand and memory as the novel appears to take its place. Even old blogs are replaced with new ones... and new ones languish while former bloggers piss away the hours on Facebook and Twitter.

(Hey, I know I’m being maudlin, but what better time than New Year’s Eve to be maudlin?)

As the year’s turning approaches, Elder Daughter prepares to take a bold step in her life, leaving the security of Corporate Employment and striking out on her own to become a full-time performer and Fringe Arts producer. She’s a bit nervous - who wouldn’t be? - but excited as well for this chance to realize long-held dreams. I can empathize, for I have taken the chance of walking away from the well-trod, comfortable path myself. When better than now, for her?

The Mistress of Sarcasm continues to enjoy her work, but she has added some new things to her life. Bernadette, her newly-adopted Rescue Kitty, has proven a sweet, loving, loyal companion... and the Mistress has taught herself how to play the ukulele, so we never lack for entertainment on those days when she is able to drop by Chez Elisson.

We’re feeling pretty good, ourselves, having shed something on the order of 60-65 pounds between us and embarked on a regular program of exercise and weight training. I’m wearing pants with a waist size I haven’t been able to squeeze my ass into for almost thirty years - surprise! And the Missus looks like a veritabobble Movie Star.



Speaking of the Missus, this New Year’s Eve is extra-special to me: It was exactly thirty-five years ago tonight that I met that certain young woman who would grow to become bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, the one and only She Who Must Be Obeyed. I’ve told the story of that fateful evening many times, and it never ceases to both amaze and amuse me. As does SWMBO, who is every bit as lovely to my (gradually maturing) eyes as she was the day we met.

By way of celebration, we’ll do what we usually do: In lieu of braving the drunk-filled roads for restaurant food, we’ll hang out with a small group of Friends of Long Standing, eating a fine home-prepared meal, drinking good wine, and watching the New Year slide in with several toasts of the Bubbly Stuff.

And by way of Good and Welfare, I’ll do what I usually do: offer my earnest best wishes to my Esteemed Readers, my friends, my family... and most of all, to my beloved SWMBO and our daughters... may you all have a healthy, happy, and safe 2011, without limit to any good thing.