some thoughts on 2010

As we end this science fiction-like year of 2010 (though both of the “Space Odyssey” films couldn’t even imagine the Cold War being over by now), a few thoughts.

Tim Morton, you are definitely the new person of the year for 2010. Just 9 or 10 months ago I was pretty miffed that you played that “Dr. Johnson kicking a stone” card on us in the Speculations interview, but we were all on the same wavelength just a few months later. I’m sure Ian and Levi would agree with me that it now seems laughable that you weren’t there in Atlanta in April to launch OOO. Much can happen in just half a year.

The Warsaw intelligentsia are also up there on my list of new people of 2010. That is a serious group! Looking forward to returning there soon.

I saw lots of amazing new places this year too, but I’m going to give first prize to Masai Mara Game Reserve in southern Kenya. It was the first of 6 parks I saw on that safari, and it was the best of them all. (Our randomly assigned extra group member, a young Italian named Marco, had been on 6 safaris and told us he’d never seen anything like Masai Mara anywhere else in Africa, so we should have believed him.) There was just one animal after another, almost no moment without viewing some amazing animal doing the sorts of things you expect to see only on television documentaries. That park is a world treasure.

Even the geography really resonated with us. The human species did originate around there, after all, and some psychologists claim that people in every country spontaneously rank savanna scenes as the most beautiful of all possible landscapes when presented with a choice– as if the African savanna is still burned deep into all of our ancestral memories as Home, given how long we were there before leaving. And why leave such a mild and beautiful place anyway? We should all still be living in African savanna instead of in frozen Northlands. It’s what we were designed for in the first place, so no wonder it’s a happy thing to spend time there.

Another place which I liked way, way better than expected: Sicily, where I went as an afterthought, on a day-trip from Malta. It wasn’t at all as I expected, and is geographically one of the most interesting places on earth, the way Mt. Aetna dominates the entire island.

Most productive month: August.

Most satisfying month: November. Three new books published, plus the Africa safari, plus the beginning of the L.A. trip.

Fun surprise: Lingis showing up in Cairo for three weeks without warning. Always entertaining to have Alphonso around.

Least favorite aspect of 2010: that bus commute is starting to wear me down.