New year, new personal website? (Or update your existing site?) Join us for a virtual IndieWeb meetup, Homebrew Website Club, January 8th at 6PM Pacific!
I have no memory of ten years ago. It’s just…a blank space. A void. Weird, no?
I definitely remember the year before, 2014. It was the year my younger daughter was born, and it was also the year we moved from a house in the suburbs to a house in the country. While that ended up very problematic in some key ways (can you say rat mites & arsenic poisoning?!), I did really enjoy living on the outskirts of a small town. (Not saying I’d rush to do it all over again, but I’m grateful for the experience—and the redwood trees.)
I also remember the end of 2015 vividly—I was simply feverish with anticipation for the theatrical release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Yeah, can you believe it? The entirety of the Disney era of Star Wars can fit inside of the last 10 years. That is absolutely bananas.
Somehow 2015 just feels impossibly long ago to me. We were still in the Obama era. While now in January 2025 the nightmare of epic proportions that is the second Trump administration is nearly beginning, ten years ago Trump 1.0 hadn’t even happened yet. In fact, we weren’t even entirely out of the Bush age yet—remember Jeb!?
Perhaps the reason I can’t picture 2015 in my mind is that it was the last full year of my delusional period when I fancied myself an “apostle for Jesus”. You can read my “exvangelical” story here if you’re so inclined, but the facts are that 2016 was definitely the beginning of the end for me. However, in 2015 I hadn’t quite escaped the cult, and unfortunately my blogging suffered because of it. I mean, I actually interviewed a guy who I later ended up falling out with because he encouraged what I would call outright child abuse. (Beat the devil out of the little brats or something to that effect.) What the actual fuck?!
I suppose I’m glad to be living in 2025 and not 2015. It’s hard, but my eyes are wide open. I was blind, but now I see. My idea of what America is, what faith & #spirituality is, what family is, and what my life should be all about is radically different now than it was ten years ago. And, on the whole, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
A new Wonderella??!!! 💖
Want to read: Polio: An American Story by (ISBN 9780195325966)