This is the 365th day on which I have been 46 years old, and this is the 312th post of the year. Target achieved: 6 posts per week for 52 weeks. Thanks, my friends, for reading what I had to say this year! Thank you for your insights and your encouragement and your occasional enabling! (I bought the sandals.)
Who would have thought, a year ago, that the world would look the way it does? Gosh, I would have gone down hard in a contest to predict what July 2017 would look like. Hey, who wants to play this year's version of that game? Answer the following questions, and next year I'll send a prize to the person who was most accurate.
- Who will be president of the US on July 18, 2018?
- What will be the most astonishing news development between now and then?
- What about the most worrisome development internationally?
- Open-ended: what's one more thing you think will happen between now and then? (Anything at all. You will have another baby. I will gain a thousand Twitter followers. (Don't wish that on me, actually. Twitter is a crazy place.) The Queen of England will die a peaceful death.)
I...am feeling a twinge of lingering guilt about the last time I ran a pool like this. It was December 2008 and I asked people to predict Stella's birthday, length, and weight. Then I never sent off the promised chocolate to the people who came closest. Belated apologies if you won that pool. I will probably be more successful with sending prizes when I am not adjusting to the arrival of a new baby while trying to write a dissertation.
But do you know, friends, I am not going to let worry or guilt be the note on which I end this year. I am going to take the advice of Alexander Maclaren, who said, "Seek, as a plain duty, to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life." Onward!
Happy birthday! And a blessed new year for you!
Posted by: Zagorka | July 19, 2017 at 10:17 AM
Happy birthday! And worry not about Stella's birthday pool; I was the winner and you DID contact me, and I think I told you that you didn't have to send me my prize. That was a long time ago!
Posted by: Ariella | July 19, 2017 at 12:37 PM
Happy birthday!! I have enjoyed your 6 posts per week SO much. Thank you for the gift! :) Have a happy celebration. (I could not even begin to predict what 2018 will look like.)
Posted by: el-e-e | July 19, 2017 at 01:26 PM
Happy birthday! I've lurked all year (as I have ever since your earlier blog), and I've immensely enjoyed, and benefited from, reading your writing. Thank you for all your posts!
Posted by: Alexandra | July 19, 2017 at 04:16 PM
Happy birthday! I've so enjoyed the regular posts. I'll miss them!
Posted by: Penelope | July 20, 2017 at 05:23 AM
I enjoy your regular writings so much. Maybe this year a more modest goal, like three per week?
Posted by: rob | July 20, 2017 at 07:29 AM
(1) Donald Trump
(2) Something with Russia, about which none of Trump's supporters will care. That won't be surprising, but the degree to which mainstream Republicans will shrug it off for the sake of holding onto power WILL be.
(3) Global climate change -- my answer for now into the distant future, such that I wish my children were more interested in science so I could shove them towards carbon-capture technology development
(4) I'm woeful at this sort of question. I know: you will continue to blog more regularly than you suggested you might. (I pick that one in a not-at-all-subtle attempt to influence the future.)
Happy Happy Birthday. I have been a woeful commentator but have deeply appreciated the presence of your posts in my feed reader, when I check my phone each morning. I will miss them.
Posted by: Jody | July 20, 2017 at 09:39 AM
Happy belated birthday! I've really enjoyed your posts this year as always :) And I'm making no guesses. I'm still reeling that Hillary didn't get Florida as I predicted and I didn't happily tuck my children into bed nice and early last November. I have hopes, though, and high on those is that at this time next year we'll have a very good shot at the Democrats taking over Congress.
Posted by: Pippi | July 23, 2017 at 11:22 AM
Happy Belated Birthday!
Posted by: Kristin | July 24, 2017 at 08:19 AM