to close down 2004, a critical-eyed inventory seems natural and constructive. as i browse through the last twelve months, i realize that my blog has been more like a getto to which i return to feel safe than a bridge that helps us move between two diverse worlds. it’s easy to divide yourself in two, but it’s hard to get the pieces back together. the gap between my real life and its blog representation is no great wonder. although what i have written does resonate with my inner world, i realize it doesn’t have much to say about my everyday life. to do that, to translate my quotidien to an english speaking world would be more work but far more interesting and useful (at least to me).
for the new year i’ve changed the blogs look in an attempt to ground it in real space and time. Not to suggest that karen and i spend much time sipping coffee in the shadow of the tour eiffel or contemplating 19th century art at the musée d’orsey, but this historic architecture symbolically brings you closer to us than a photoshop-altered-starbucks-in-nowhere (starbucks is an appropriate symbol for the total absence of place). my hope is that future posts will virtually set your feet on the cobble stones. the desire to translate my real world is a self-imposed blog value. some of my favorite blogs to read are all smoke-n-mirrors fantasy worlds. with the changes we anticipate this year, our daily life may turn out to be more fantastic than fiction.
‘nough said… campaign promises are rarely kept. we’ll see.
let’s get to that critical-eyed 2004 inventory. i’ve narrowed it down to :
the top 5 posts
number five takes us back to dec 2003, a particularly fruitful month of advent blogs and the birth of our second child, michaël. there's nothing like the birth of a child or the near death of one’s wife to squeeze out the creativity. i include this later 2003 post here because it represents my first forays into the larger blogoshere.
4. uproot
number four is a good metaphor for my work and a fertile thought process.
3. le sanglier
number three is me at play in a real place at a real time, where I would often rather be. it’s better-than-blogging life experiences like this that make blogs worth writing and reading.
number two marks real time in our life and touches close to home, a counter-cultural retro-approach to the relationship between a man and a woman. i could have and should have also brought out the cross-cultural differences of our franco-american life together. it is this cross-cultural facet that I hope to better describe next year.
1. métissage
number two scared me off. this post represents the rare times i participated in the so called “emerging church” conversation. i was intimidated, overwhelmed, by the response to what i wrote. it’s too easy to become a pseudo-expert on the web and, for now, i reject the role. however, the influence of non-western christianity in western cities continues to be at the center of my interests. i include this post only because of its power to bring you into the parisian burbs on both a global and a local level. my life is glocal and so should be my blog.
IMAGE is not everything, but you get the PICTURE
IMHO, the “bilan visuel” is far more positive. the videos and photos bring you closer to our life than anything i may have written. these are the images that i would again bring into your focus.
get “the most” of this blog here.
the top 3 videos
the top 3 photo albums
most surreal (but real): water ; earth
if you’ve read this far the word “real” has become as tired as you are: is it possible to incarnate authentic humanity in a medium that is by definition virtual? that is a question worth exploring in 2005. thank you for sharing in a virtual slice of our life in 2004. May next year’s sharing be that much closer to the genuine article.
