2024 in the Rearview Mirror

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I've always found New Years celebrations to be arbitrary artifacts of the Julian calendar. But I can understand the reasons why people celebrate the change. After all, if the preceding year was bad, the new year offers new possibilities. If the past year was especially good, well perhaps that's worth celebrating in itself. 

In fact, most years are filled with both good and bad events. There are usually things to celebrate but also some to mourn. In 2023 for example, I was able to catch up with many old friends from college I had not seen in several decades on trips to Los Angeles and London. I had a conference in one of my favorite places in the world, Cambridge, UK, where I was able to catch up with several friends from academia. But I also had to deal with two cancers of the prostate and kidney, respectively. But I was also very lucky that both cancers were taken care of by surgery alone, without the need for additional radiation or chemotherapy. And I remained surprisingly upbeat about it throughout. I expected a good outcome. Then, before the end of the year, two of my old college friends - one a bandmate and the other a professor - passed away, just months after I had seen them for the first time in forty years. One was more or less expected, but the other was a shock. Still, I feel fortunate to have gotten to spend time with him before he died. Obviously, 2023 was a mixed year for me, as most are. But, on balance, I'd say the good outweighed the bad. 

2024, by contrast, has been nothing but positive. It has been a year of good health with plentiful opportunities for travel and learning. A month in the UK, a month in NZ, progress made on various research and writing projects, and substantial opportunities to make music with friends are all features of my 2024. Most importantly, my wife and kids are all healthy and doing well (whether they know it or not). It would be churlish of me to complain about anything else.

I'd like to have a lot more years like 2024 before the denouement. 



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