What a crappy year.
I don't think I've been so happy to see a year depart in a while.
I'm looking back on it as a year that was sucked away by facing some inner demons. I suppose that was necessary, and beneficial in the long run, but at the same time it means I don't have many fond memories of the year.
Actually, all of my fondest memories of the year involve getting drunk. Especially July 3, when I had five margaritas, two shots of tequila, and a beer. The result was that the sun was in the sky when I stopped puking, and it was AWESOME.
But, I also look at 2011 as a year where I had to negotiate a certain estrangement from this place. I walked away entirely for a while, which did wonders for my blood pressure. That, in turn, gave rise to a new personal rule: Do not express disagreements online. Perhaps at some point, I'll be ready to argue for real again. For now, I kind of do what I do, whatever that is. Well, over the flip, I'll talk about some things that I'm proud of here and elsewhere from the year.
The diary from 2011 that I'm proudest of is A Chronicle of Religious (well, Christian) Affirmations of Evolution. It represents my first serious engagement with science since high school. I learned and re-learned a lot of details about evolution in the process. I've always respected the consensus of scientific inquiry, but pretty much lost all interest in science by college. I finally got fed up with the way the religion/science debate has been playing out, and decided to document an alternate history, which opened some new ways of thinking for me. If I somehow get enough money to support myself, I'll turn that diary into the book that will get me on the Daily Show. That particular diary was written with the intent to overwhelm the reader, a shorter version, Pro-Evolutionary Theology: 19th-Century Voices was rescued, for which I am always very grateful.
My non-DK achievement from 2011 I'm proudest of is getting the manuscript of Voices of Feminist Liberation: Writings in Celebration of Rosemary Radford Ruether to the publisher. That was a lot of work, mostly herding cats, and a wonderful way to honor my favorite author.
Back to DK in 2011, there was the boycott. I participated, came back, but some of my favorite voices were gone, and most of the real pleasure I used to feel when hanging out here was also gone. My main attempt to address the underlying issues leading to the boycott garnered me a lot of recs, but seems only to have further alienated me from the very people I was trying to reach. Such is life.
Perhaps 2012 will be better.