Early in the month we received news that an old family friend, Jim Kidd, had died. I was asked to write a tribute which became part of the small graveside funeral service. I had known Jim for almost fifty years and I created a webpage and Album of him.
I continued writing essays, adding to this growing collection with About Women, posted December 11, 2020.
My friend Henk Wilms and I had a great email exchange, My Conversations with Henk Wilms - 2020 - December, which flowed from our Zoom meeting.
Pat was enjoying reading Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt. She shared some of the colorful passages from the book with me, reading them aloud during our early morning time together. She wanted to continue with the series so I bought the Kindle edition of 'Tis: A Memoir for her and the readings continued. It gave me some pleasure seeing Pat enjoy these books and I found the life of Frank McCourt quite interesting. However, I did wonder whether he had enhanced his story.
A new activity blossomed in December. I am now having a wonderful correspondence with Ethan Chau, a remarkable sixteen year old living in Singapore. Our conversation is in the public domain on the Letter platform and our letter count stands at 9. I also read some of Ethan’s articles on Medium. I hope this relationship continues for a long time.
Two particular days in December were noteworthy. On December 19th I sent an email to the members of the Ajijic Book Club stating an expectation of meeting again in person by June seemed realistic. On December 20th I read my first article about a coronavirus mutation in the UK that is even more contagious than the original. Since then there have been many similar reports from numerous countries. Once again we are in a period of heightened uncertainty with more questions than answers.
Pat and I decided to get back to the never ending need for repairs and maintenance. We had workers on site adding some security fencing on our back wall. We also had our back stairs to the roof painted because they were starting to rust. I also hired someone to do some major changes to our garden. We have a list of things to do and work will continue in 2021.
December was a month of sudden change in an online community that I am part of. Peter Limberg distanced himself from The Stoa Discord and rebranded it to The Unstoa. Then he announced that he would shut down the site in three days, which he did on December 24th. That move generated both support and criticism. Peter shared many details about his reasons in his public journal entries. He also announced that he was considering shutting down The Stoa on its first anniversary, March 21, 2021. And he recently stated that he will greatly reduce his public journaling.
I had exchanged some emails with Peter Limberg including some discussion of these changes. I have been, and continue to be, a strong supporter of his work, including making a small monthly financial contribution on Patreon. Recently, Peter shared a private journal entry explaining the changes more fully. He asked me to not share the information publicly and, of course, I won’t. I very much appreciated his confidence in me and all I will say is that building a community is no easy task with many pitfalls. I wrote about these developments in my article My Further Reflections on The Stoa.
Another new activity for me this month is a weekly Zoom meeting with Brendan Tannam who lives in Dublin, Ireland. I met Brendan at The Stoa and we share an interest in Collective Presencing. I am amazed at how easy it is for strangers to have good conversation and quickly form a bond. I also had two conversations with Valerie, who lives in Berlin. Both of these were truly remarkable, as if we already knew each other.
I have been reflecting on an interesting six month experience this year which I documented in an article, My Enhanced Well-being.
Pat and I ended the year with wine and cheese and chocolate while watching JEAN-MICHEL JARRE presents « WELCOME TO THE OTHER SIDE »: a NEW YEAR’S EVE CONCERT-SPECTACULAR in virtual NOTRE-DAME. We counted down to midnight on Central European Time. Than we watched a year in review program that Pat had recorded. What a year! We also watched some live New Year’s Eve entertainment on TV. I went to bed at my usual time but Pat stayed up.
The virtual concert brought back to mind a conversation about virtual reality that I had about five years ago with Jean-Sébastien Morin (Sebi). I expected VR to burst on to the mainstream but Sebi was skeptical. He proved to be right. Now I am wondering whether the coronavirus crisis will accelerate the slow utilization of VR.