Happy 2010 Everyone

Peace-pop at the Parrot Confectionery, Helena, MT.

And thank you all for a most wonderful 2009!

What have we learned? What hopes have we built upon? What new aspirations carry us into this new decade?

For me, 2010 marks a transition from student-hood to professorship. I’ve taught before, but this year will be the last of my ph.d. studies and, hopefully, the year I move into a full-time teaching gig. Academia being what it is, I can’t say when exactly that will be, or where. But a decade as a student, in the US, then the UK, then back in the US, and again back in the UK, has trained me well for this adventure.

2009 was great in my little part of the world. I fulfilled most of my resolutions while leaving plenty to do in 2010. Much of the year went beyond expectations: a month in China, presenting at AAR, and most recently an invitation to teach in Los Angeles for a few days (I’m leaving in under 2 weeks). I also joined the twitter world and somehow, despite infrequent and random tweets, attracted some followers – due in large part to this article. There was plenty of time in nature, lots of photography, a new Nikon camera, a marathon and a half, and many precious moments with friends new and old.

I’ve learned to drop a lot of expectations, to enjoy what is, to be grateful for the abundance of my life. I’ve worked on my faults: impatience with loved ones, the desire to know firmly things that are beyond my means of knowledge, and so on. None of these were too horrible, and none will be changed completely in just one year, but there have been noticeable little changes. This holiday season, for example, our whole family was back together for over a week without any of that typical holiday-family-bickering that we’re all so accustomed to. It was actually pretty amazing, and, given the opportunity to go to nearby Missoula to see friends and party for the New Year, we were unanimous in our decision to stay home and celebrate the New Year together.

Daniel Gilbert, author of “Stumbling On Happiness” wrote a good piece about the New Year, in praise of nostalgia and warning us of the MacWorld trajectory our nation seems to be on. I read it just before a New Years Eve morning adventure into Helena’s downtown with my parents and girlfriend, Julie. My father is one of the friendliest guys you’ll ever meet, and just completed nearly 30 years as a postal clerk here in Helena. After 30 years here, my dad knows everybody, or so it seems.

One of the guys he knows just happens to be one of the world’s largest dealers in rare and precious gems. And, since Julie is a jeweler and designer, he arranged for the four of us to pay the gem guy a visit. Julie warned that it would be like being a kid in a candy store for her, and it was. Bob, the dealer, kindly sat her down and began bringing out ever-larger, ever-rarer, and ever-more expensive stones, each to her newly widened eyes and jaw-dropping grins. He took us to his small safe – then the big one, plopping $40k+ stones into Julie’s hands one after another, noting that the really big ones ($600k+) and most of the sets were off being shown here and there. He showed us a set of the world’s rarest gems that were about to be lent to the San Diego Museum for two years. And to top it all off, he offered us (Julie and I) passes to the main exhibition at February’s massive Tucson Gem and Mineral show. Even more, he offered to take the four of us out to dinner, with the ladies wearing some of his sets worth in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now to me it was all a bunch of pretty rocks and dollar signs and some worry about the ethics of such things as Burmese rubies (which may not be such an issue after all). But I could see the creative wheels churning for Julie and my mother, as the two began collaborations on a ring design for the latter – and for that I was very glad. It would be like me, I imagine, venturing into a vault of ideas from Buddhism, great and rare books, conversations with and stories from master scholars.

And then it was off to a landmark of Helena, the Parrot Confectionery.
While sprawl has hit my hometown in a terrible way, many downtown businesses such as this still cling on and provide welcome returns to the past. Two hot cocoas and a half-pound of assorted chocolates later we were on our way back home, rounding out the biggest card-playing tournament of my life, watching a movie, and ringing in the New Year.
Simplicity. Family. Tradition. A beautiful end to a beautiful year. Plenty more Buddhist content, some readings in/of the Pali, and no doubt another list of resolutions to come. For now though, another article from the NY Times explains better than I could why I should get back to the family and enjoying what time I have with them before I go back to Missoula and my studies.