Howdy
Our family packed a lot into this year. We have enjoyed pretty good health. We’ve celebrated a few milestones. We’ve travelled. We’ve learned. We’ve grown. Here is 2023 in no particular order.
Travel
Scotland
Our Covid delayed trip to Scotland finally happened in May. Lisa & I went with her sister Sue and husband Mark. 10 days of adventure and misadventure. Scotland is everything you have heard and more. I have blogged about it extensively here. And here. And here. Check out those posts.
Formula 1 (F1) Race In Budapest, Hungary
So, I’m not really that much of a gear head. But my friend Brad Renyer invited me to tag along to the Hungaroring in July. F1 fans will know that Verstappen won the race (of course). We tagged on a couple days in Zurich as well (Switzerland is perhaps the most blessed place on earth). And we went to Liechtenstein. Got that stamp in the passport.
Formula 1 Reflections: I simply had no concept of what 200 mph looks like until seeing it in person. Still don’t. F1 completely dwarfs our US concept of big sporting events like the Super Bowl. Over 300,000 people gathered at various tracks around the world 25 weekends a year. The size and scope of the whole event is mind altering. And, while I’ve yet to attend an Olympics (bucket list), F1 certainly has that vibe. Flags from around the world. Many nations and tongues represented. If you get the chance to go to an F1 race, you should probably do it.
Further F1 Reflections: I think we’re all really tired of Red Bull and Verstappen by this point. Our race in Hungary was over by turn 1 of lap 1. 2023 wasn’t even a fair fight. But you really have to stand back and marvel at the precision, teamwork and collaboration that went into their team this year. They took the Red bull by the horns and assembled a model that’s pretty much unparalleled in business or anywhere else. Hat’s off to them.
Final F1 Reflections: While I still can’t really comprehend what 200 miles an hour LOOKS like, I can tell you what if FEELS like. I’ll never forget a certain cab ride from the track back to our hotel in Budapest. There’s not a theme park in the world with a ride more thrilling and white-knuckling than that. Fortunately, it didn’t cost that much. Cause, while it was something like 30km to the hotel, it only took about 8 minutes (in traffic).
40th Anniversary
On June 3 we celebrated 40 years of wedded bliss (well, I did. Not sure about Lisa). Anyway, we celebrated at a restaurant in Lone Tree with Weston & Aubrey (our kids). We pulled out a lot of stuff we had in storage (napkins, bulletins, cake) from 40 years ago & made the kids reminisce with us about those times (actually, we didn’t save any cake, but kinda wish we had, just to see what it would have looked like. Probably would have looked like a fresh fruitcake).
Speaking Of The Kids
Weston, 22
Works at Whole Foods in the produce department. He enjoys the work. He took a weekend this summer with friends in Colorado Springs. He’s pictured here at the top of the Manitou Incline. 2,744 steps straight up the mountain. One thing I have always admired about Wes. He has the same group of friends he’s had since 5th grade. They’ve added a few along the way, but the core remains tight. They’ve all gone their separate ways (college, career, etc) but there’s a friendship bond there that most of the world could do well to emulate.
Aubrey, 20
Sophomore at Regis University here in Denver. Starts nursing school next fall. She has finished all her prerequisites, so is leaving on January 12 for a spring semester in Provence, France. Taking all art classes in the land of Cezanne. She’ll probably return home unshaven, smoking tiny French cigarettes, eating baguettes, drinking table wine at lunch everyday and wearing a beret everywhere she goes.
We’re planning a trip to France in May for a week when she wraps up her studies. I’m not a big Paris guy, so I hope we’ll just hang out on the French Riviera for a week. But I’m guessing we’ll end up in Paris for a few days because TAYLOR freakin’ SWIFT will be there the same week we are. Who cares about the Louve? The Eiffel Tower? It’s TAYLOR SWIFT!! Aubrey already saw her in Denver (see my blog post/rant about that), so, of course, the stars have aligned and Aubrey wants to see her in Paris.
BTW – Weston has already been to Paris, so he doesn’t care about it either. He wants to visit all the WWII memorial sites. But guessing TAYLOR SWIFT won’t be appearing at Normandy.
Thursdays
7 am every Thursday I do a Bible Study with a group of guys that have been, at one time or another, a part of Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch. It’s been going on for years now, and pretty much permanently moved to Zoom during the pandemic. We still get together in person a couple times per year.
Cool thing is that we actually do a Bible Study. It’s not just a bunch of old farts drinking coffee, griping about politics, whining about the younger generation or talking about the weather. There’s a lot of iron sharpening that goes on there.
The family gave me a CS Lewis Study Bible for Christmas this year. Looking forward to using it in 2024.
Prison
I’ve been a part of a Breakthrough, group that goes to the Colorado State Pen each month to work with guys on their post-release business plans. I’m thankful that the guards continue to let me out each time I go in.
We had a great graduation ceremony in October where 4 groups presented their business pitches. Those guys always inspire me. We’ve had about 75 guys released over the past 5 years and most are navigating the reentry challenges pretty well due to a supportive post-release program. Our recidivism rates are very low thus far.
Careers
Jerry
I’ve mentioned in blogs here and here that I joined EquityVest in January of this year. We are a startup in the equity crowdfunding space, serving faith-driven entrepreneurs and business in their efforts to raise capital. True to startup form, this has been a real year of learning. Virtually every aspect of the business has been tested and refined. As we close out the year, we are so grateful. The message is getting out, people are finding us and we have a growing pipeline of companies set to raise capital on our site.
If you are a business seeking capital, let’s have a conversation.
Lisa
Lisa is a Director at a Goddard School in Meridian, CO. 15 minute drive from home. She is totally in her area of passion (Early Childhood Education) and loves, LOVES the Goddard School leadership team, staff and – especially – the 130 kids. If you follow her on Facebook, you know she is an advocate for the many personal and social benefits that accrue to kids that are in early childhood ed.
Both Lisa & I bought fat tire geriatric bicycles this summer. We do a 10 mile ride along the Cherry Creek Trail near our house several times a week when the weather is good.
Finale
In the 1930’s, J.R.R. Tolkein invented the word eucatastrophe. Literally, it means “the good catastrophe” or “the good destruction.” It refers to a sudden and favorable resolution of events in a story; a happy ending. Tolkein writes:
The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation.
On Fairy Stories
In writing on the implications of this, others have summarized Tolkein’s position like this
The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ mean that – one day – everything that is sad will become untrue.
Various
If Tolkein is right, all the pain of this life becomes transformed and repurposed into meaning. It becomes untrue. It is deconstructed. It is redeemed. I don’t know how – God does. But this is the hope we dare to live with. It’s what motivates us to lean into the pain of life and find light. And to understand that we can endure the messiness of this world in anticipation of a “good destruction.”
I hope you have had a stellar year. For all of us, may all that has been sad and painful become untrue as we realize there is Someone much larger working to unwind and remake the trials we find here.
“It seems then,’ said Tirian, “…that the stable seen from without and the stable seen from within are two different places.”
“Yes, said Lord Digory. Its inside is bigger than its outside.”
“Yes, said Queen Lucy. In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was larger than our whole world.”
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle. The Chronicles of Narnia
Merry Christmas!
Jerry
Parker, CO
Jerry’s Bonus Nerdy Stuff
Reading
A pretty good year for reading. 33 books this year. 26 different authors. Fiction, biography, history, culture, science, Christian living, and a first for me – a Stephen King book (Fairy Tale. Whatever).
Best books of the year
Fiction: The entire Fredrik Backman “Beartown” series: “Beartown”, “Us Against You”, “The Winners.” (Also read “A Man Called Ove.”) From his reviewers: “A Swedish Curmudgeon.” “…emotionally wrought, big hearted [series] takes competition, friendship, politics and town rivalry to appropriately biblical proportions”- New York Times. The best contemporary fiction writer I (Jerry) have yet to discover.
Christian Living: “To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World” by James Davison Hunter. It’s been out since 2010 (Oxford University Press), but I just found it. Has completely augmented my perspective on how to “be” in this crazy world without selling my soul. It’s about how culture is actually formed and shaped, and how we can still make a difference. A lot of uncomfortable truths in this book. Spoiler: if you want to cut to the chase, just read Jeremiah 29:5-7.
The Best Thing I’ve Seen On TV In 2023
“All The Light We Cannot See.” Limited 4-part series currently streaming on Netflix. Excellent adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s inaugural novel, published in 2014. Winner of Best Historical Fiction award that year. Official trailer here.
Cool New Word I Learned This Year: Anamnesis
Anamnesis is a Greek word that means “a calling to mind,” from the roots ana-, “back,” and mimneskesthai, “to recall” or “to cause to remember.” Definitions of anamnesis. the ability to recall past occurrences. synonyms: recollection, remembrance. type of: memory, retention, retentiveness, retentivity.
What’s important here is that the “recalling” is not of some past personal a past life (I wasn’t previously a moose). It’s a remembering of past collectives and ancient truths. A yearning for the old and transcendent. A recognition that much that is exemplary and virtuous is “falling into shadow” as Tolkein might say. It’s what CS Lewis refers to as the antidote to “chronological snobbery.” It’s the light that emerges when I consider the God as the Ancient of Days. It’s a reminder that truth transcends and is rooted far deeper than culture.
A freaking cool word. Anamnesis
BTW – I came across this word when listening to lecture by Michael Ward on CS Lewis’s
“The Abolition of Man,” which remains perhaps the most prescient essay of the 20th century. Don’t believe me? Watch the lecture here and see who ELSE thinks so.