This year has been_ well… Yes. It has.

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There are many people saying that this year was tougher or kind, rougher or fine… Truth of the matter is that something to the tune of 7 billion people had 365 days and that leads to at least 2.555 trillion days’ worth of experiences. Think about that. One day to the next, a better or tougher day for each individual. Then, maybe a single day can have more than one way to think around it. Maybe someone lost a dear friend on the same day another came home from a long way away. That’s complicated. So, let’s say that there may reasonably be around three trillion summaries of how this just went, if considered in the most minimal fashion of looking at each day as an individual experience, with a little leeway for discussing a day in more than one way… So, do I feel good about declaring 2021 a pile of joy or manure? I do not. It was at least 365 full days for me and on some of them, I celebrated; on some of them, I cried; on some of them, both. It was complex, and I celebrate that; though those who were lost are remembered with a pained void that can not easily heal… Yet ’22 approaches. We must tend what grows and rebuild what has been torn down if it is needed, or recast it, if it is not.

From my window, I can see honest bellows of snow on this chilly morning of December 25th, a day many celebrate as the holiday Christmas. It is famous for many things, complex in its own ways. It is both a good excuse to share time, emotions, and physical things with family and friends, and is also a good time to reflect on the world in which we live ~ allowing our honest thoughts to not be hindered by what we believe are expectations of others, but led by what our senses tell us is real.

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Last night, I saw a new movie that has just come out that holds commentary on modern-times in both plot and lyrical context. It is an important film that I hope isn’t lost to the corporate spin that it so beautifully and directly accuses of both willful capitulation to the mighty dollar, and absurd neglect, in a way that is clearly enunciated. Its name is Don’t Look Up, and I soundly recommend it to anyone conscious of the modern American experience. It is a valuable critique and incredibly well-done.

Figuring that the new-year holds a regular-schedule beginning on the 4th-day of January for me, is a concept that re-sets how I will be participating amongst folks. I haven’t had an externally-monitored regular-schedule since June. It has had its moments. From the month in Tibetan-China, meeting locals, buying tea in a fine mosque and visiting yellow-hat monasteries, up to jamming on stage ’till Ayron Jones stepped in on a recent evening, I have seen some amazing things and I hope that I can now turn around and share them with you effectively.

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Reflecting on my own year, considering the one that is to follow is something that I figure appropriate…

This year, I left China for America, for a variety of reasons. I am not “over China” ~ Much to the contrary. I am enrolled in classes to be able to speak the language even better, so that I can understand the culture better, so that I can share that complex and amazing place with folks who otherwise are getting snippets through mass-media that are unfortunately, deeply-biased with political-angles that do not take into account the perspective of an ancient land in modern times. There are so many things that I will be happy to get into later with people after deeper academic solidification.

For now, it’s fair to say that I’m a big fan of both places and consider the idea of cooperation better than animosity, and I will aim for greater understanding on all-sides in order to help that energy grow. And so: I study, in order to grow and shape my thoughts in ways that are more educated, and as such perhaps more acceptable, to those who I will have as my intended-readership in future-iterations of my work… (love working with the artful-hyphen!)

Speaking of: I have a new company. It is called Oblectation LLC. It is listed as a production company and a publishing press. (Oblectation: (n.) Pleasure, Satisfaction, Delight; An oblectation of the senses. ~Merriam Webster)
I will be printing books and representing artists who are aiming for more kindness, for more hope, for more light in the world, and I hope it has a meaningful impact. There is one book that I am practically finished with that I will send through the system that I am setting up so that I can both have it available to share and to get a feel for the process. There are a few other folks who are ready for me to be up-and-running with this, so I am happy; their interest inspires focus in this project. In time, I will be open to more people, and more productions/publications, but I will need a bit of time between now and then to solidify the foundation of how it works, so I can enunciate it. It is an exciting effort, and I look forward to fine things coming from it in the coming year.

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Moving to Bellingham, Washington has been an interesting reality. From getting used to how I’m to do simple things like pay for meals and items at stores (very different than the last few years) to how people meet and interact, to how I eat food, (Please, more chopsticks! though I sometimes carry my own now.) seemingly normal things are not so to me, and it takes time to get used to them. Thankfully, I have a few old friends here who have helped me keep it real and a large collection of housemates from very different paths who do the same. As such, I’m getting fairly well attuned to the area, albeit in a slow pattern. (K.: I realize that it isn’t Bellingham that isn’t doing the projects and activities, but rather I, who stay in my secure bubble for a large part.) Getting out to places to meet people is a quandary. I hope to do things like work with the arts nearby and expand my local social circle, but at the same time, there is truly a pandemic that needs to be recognized as well as my weirdo social hang-ups of generally being new somewhere. The New York Times reports 197,358 new cases on December 24th, yesterday. That’s a 65% increase from two weeks ago. These are not simple times.

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They are our now, however, and our challenge is to do the best we can with what we have. To that effect, I’ll re-edit my work, and encourage reflection for others. I’ll request feedback on my efforts, and perhaps offer some when it is welcomed as well. I hope that we can have a more resounding tone of celebration for this coming year that what may have been the general result of this one that is coming to a close among us. . . But it is important that we remember that it is not necessarily as if we are entering a new chapter in something, but rather, we are extending the continuum. There is no true-end within the marked-shift from one-year to the next. We are truly stepping only one-more-step along the never-ending path. And as such, I hope we see our challenges for what they are. They are serious and they are also opportunities to add lightness to what can be a deafening clamor of harshness in the world, if we do not attempt to deflect that clamor and decide to create anew.

So, if there is something of a transition to be noted as this new year comes ahead: let me, if you would please, encourage folks to take the rigorous trials of our times as challenges that we are tasked with turning positively. Not to the extent that we ignore the problem, but that we face them head-on and deal with them in the best ways possible so that we are not held back from our own growth and/or from helping others.

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year~

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