Christmas, 2009

Notes on photos: Frost helps draw the leaves of a shrub. Me, December 24, 2009. I returned to the falls that I have photographed so often--nostalgia guided me there, I am sure. One of the falls was shot on a 10 megapixel digital camera, the other on film with a camera that is 60 years old. Which one is which? The color of Christmas is green, as these ferns and this branch of holly show.

Merry Christmas! I hope that this finds you well and (safely) enjoying the holiday with your people. While this medium is efficient, I know it is a poor way to communicate holiday wishes. No doubt that it has more information than most of you want or need but perhaps not the news that others desire. Well then, just look at the pictures if either is the case.

I have to say that this is a more difficult Christmas letter to write. I think that this is the third or fourth year that I have done this, and other years’ letters seemed more effortless. I think that this was such a complex year, and I wonder sometimes how to recap such a year. I guess it is simpler than I am probably am making it. I am safe and warm and obviously (see the picture for proof) have enough to eat. While challenged and battered a bit this year, I am little worse for the wear. That is all that matters, isn't it?

It is not to say that there haven’t been some tough changes this year. I started out with a job but ended without one, and I got to experience that great middle class social program of unemployment insurance. An interesting experience, though one that I might not recommend to others. Hey, the economy is tough—I discovered this along with about 10 million other people. Actually, it was a pretty good experience and a good exercise. And, with help, I think that I have made it through this experience pretty well.

I am often drawn to quotes as others often seem to have better words than I do. One quote I blogged about a while ago was from a friend at WCC. He shared "If the old does not go, the new will not come." I certainly have experienced this in my personal life this past year, but more so in my professional life. For example, my old job has gone, but I have a new job, one that starts right away in February. I will be the dean of Liberal Studies/General Studies at St Cloud Technical College—big changes and a tremendous opportunity for me. The college is becoming a comprehensive community and technical college, which will allow it to offer transfer courses and degrees. This means a change in its mission and even a name change, so it will be an interesting year. The dean position that I will assume will be central to the new mission of the college, so I will have to (and get to) grow with these changes. Cool, eh?

This will necessitate some additional changes that I hadn’t fully planned on, such as moving back the Midwest in the middle of winter. Just moving is a challenge on several fronts. I do love it here, and the -10 below day of my interview did remind me of the differences between the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. And while well-supported for moving expenses, accomplishing this in the middle of winter, across two mountain ranges and the wide expanse of prairie will not be easy. I think that I will actually take two trips to accomplish this. At the end of January I will take as much as I can to maintain me for my start date. Then in March I will move the rest of me to my new home.

And it will be home. I have wondered a great deal as to what that statement really means, and have come to some conclusions. Home is wherever you can gather enough pieces of your heart to survive. To be a home doesn’t require every piece, a fact that I have learned this past year. I am sure that different pieces will come together as I begin again in a new place. Fun, eh? You betcha, ya know, as they often say in Minnesota.

But the second quote I will use supports me in all these changes. In Italian (I think) , it is "Quandu si las 'a vecchia p'a nova, sabe che lasa ma non sabe che trova." As I am not from the Old Country I accepted this translation, "When you leave the old for the new, you know what you are leaving but not what you will find." I have no idea what I will find, but I bet I will continue to be safe and warm...

Thanks for all of your support and help this past year. It means more than I can ever say, and I know I am blessed. I hope we can share more in this new year...

Merry Christmas.