This year finds me feeling an odd combination of joy and gratitude for simply breathing another day on this Earth, and some considerable despair of those breaths witnessing the seeming unraveling of the world around us. Perhaps “gratispair“? Alas, but perhaps even the darker face of this two-sided coin is lightened some by the memory of the trials of our forefathers and mothers who faced this and worse, and never seemed to dwell on misfortune. And so it is with mindful focus on the next breath that I look forward with anticipation to the uncertain future that always stretches out before us, and send you our annual look-back and look-forward in this holiday letter. Wishing you all the happiness of the moment, and most of all that our paths cross in 2022.

Kevin and Family

PS special feature this year, not only our family but the welcome additions of Malena’s partner in crime, Scott, and Owen’s accomplice, Juliette.

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Kevin

Notable 2021 Developments

• Nicest words in electrocardiology: “successful ablation”
• Surprised at myself saying to a friend whose wife was suddenly feeling ill, “Wow, I hope it’s E. coli”
• Did not see this coming: widespread mistrust (misunderstanding?) of the scientific method

Happiest Moment

When playing music, especially with others, I get lost in a song and it feels more like it’s playing me than the other way around. And for a brief time, none the world’s (and my) many troubles intrude, my fingers on the fretboard seem to take on a life of their own, and I watch simple amazement, for once not thinking, but only doing. In that moment, I haven’t become happy, I am happy.*

Challenges/Hopes

2022 launch of The Drunken Owl Podcast, featuring my latest play, “Help Me With Something Else.” And someday/maybe, the initial performance of my tennis club band (working name, “The Unforced Errors”), and maybe even an original single, “Love Means Nothing.”

Read/Watched/Listened

• Movies: Belfast (2021), a beautifully told remembrance of Kenneth Branagh’s childhood during “the Troubles,” that resonates with the current moment in so many places. Also, Monsieur Lazhar (2012) a bittersweet story of an Algerian immigrant in Montreal who takes a job teaching, featuring perhaps the finest  collection of child actors ever assembled.

• Books: best book of 2021 Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, by Steven Pinker. See also, Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, by Lisa Barrett Feldman, and Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know, by Adam Grant.

• Podcasts: Writer’s Almanac (Garrison Keillor) especially the December 25, 2021 episode featuring a poignant poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Making Sense (Sam Harris), Mindscape (Sean Carroll), and China Talk (Jordan Schneider).

Quotes

“Let death and exile, and all other things which appear terrible be daily before your eyes, but chiefly death, and you will never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything.”

    — Epictetus (50-135 AD)

“While I am opposed to all orthodox creeds, I have a creed myself; and my creed is this. Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. The creed is somewhat short, but it is long enough for this life, strong enough for this world. If there is another world, when we get there we can make another creed.”

    — Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)

* “You can never become happy, you can only be happy.”
    —Sam Harris, from a daily Moment message on the Waking Up meditation app (2021)

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Ann

Notable 2021 Developments

• A few pounds, a few wrinkles, a few grey hairs
• Waging a war on plastic

Happiest Moment

• Flying in a hot air balloon w/ family and friends

Challenges/Hopes

• My challenge is to continue playing tennis and skiing for as long as my joints allow (but might start playing pickleball just in case)
• My hope is that the Supreme Court comes to its senses

Read/Watched

• My Favorite Books: The Cold Millions by Jess Walter and Frog Music by Emma Donohue
• Favorite Show: Ted Lasso

Quote

“Getting older is the best thing that ever happened to me. I wake up every morning rejoicing that I’m still here with an opportunity to begin again and be better” —Oprah

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Malena

Notable 2021 Developments

• Still employed at hot Seattle start-up Shelf Engine, saving the world from food waste
• Exchanged international travel for exploring new corners of America in 2021: Idaho, Iowa, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee
• Pickleball
• Caved to Peloton

Happiest Moments

My happiest moment was clipping into nordic skis and heaving on my pack at Crater Lake for a three-day misadventure with the Harrangs. With the weather, plowing, work schedules, family coverage and COVID to overcome, it was a feeling of jubilee to arrive there all together in perfect sunny conditions!

That, or hearing that the Church of Latter Day Saints in Driggs, Idaho would have enough Moderna shots for me and Scott to get our first vaccine in April.

Challenges/Hopes

• Staying positive about the future of climate change
• Many good days on skis
• A Supreme Court vote to uphold Roe vs. Wade

Read/Watched/Listened/Tasted

• Book: The Truth about Animals, by Lucy Cooke
• Podcast: Completely Arbortrary, a podcast about trees and other related topics
• Music: Brandi Carlile’s harmony version of Right on Time
• TV: Inside, by Bo Burnham

Quote

“The Constitution provides a guarantee of liberty. The court has interpreted that liberty to include the ability to make decisions related to childbearing, marriage, and family. Women have an equal right to liberty under the Constitution, your honor. And if they’re not able to make this decision, if states can take control of women’s bodies and force them to endure months of pregnancy and childbirth, then they will never have equal status under the Constitution.”
– Julie Rickelman to the Supreme Court in oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health on December 1, 2021

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Scott

Notable 2021 Developments

• Reuniting with friends and family, including three visits with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew!

Happiest Moment

• Hiking/carrying nephew Charlie in Mt. Rainier National Park
• Close 2nd: bobsledding in Park City

Challenges/Hopes

• Working remote has proved more isolating than desired, but I hope to find a better personal/professional balance in the near future

Read/Watched/Listened/Tasted

• Read: Astoria, by Peter Stark
• Watched: The January 6^th Insurrection will be the most consequential thing watched in the last decade
• Listened: Throughline (podcast)
• Tasted: Signe & Hank’s grapes

Quote

“Congratulations, Jeffrey! You did it!”

—Bo Burnham re: Jeffrey Bezos winning life with little to no self-awareness or humility

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Owen

Notable 2021 Developments

• Made it to the second year of Master of Urban Planning program at the University of Washington. Hopefully graduating this Spring
• Working part-time at the Seattle Office of the Waterfront

Happiest Moment

• Small but meaningful acts of travel:
  • Skiing around Crater Lake with cousins
  • Spending the winter in Santa Monica, surfing before class, and pretending to own Juliette’s dog
  • Canada kayak trip in the summer
  • Mexico City now!

Hopes for 2022

• Attend postponed Telluride Bluegrass Festival (still carrying over tickets from 2020!)
• Secure a job post-graduation
• Summit Mt. Rainier

Read/Watched/Listened/Tasted

• The Leftovers (TV Series, HBO)
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• SAULT (band)

Heard to Say

• “I’m pretty sure it’s just around the corner”

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Juliette

Notable 2021 Developments

• Moved to Seattle for real (signed a lease for a one-bedroom apartment!)
• Made my friends move to Seattle too
• Continued to work in politics despite an insurrection
• Launched a program to help young people run for local elected office

Happiest Moment

• Spending a month at home in LA with my beloved dog
• Reuniting with friends across the country after getting vaccinated
• Learning to surf in Tofino (BC)
• Purchasing pool floaties from Safeway and taking them to Lake Washington with White Claws in hand

Hopes for 2022

• Ability to travel more
• Exciting new work opportunities

Read/Watched/Listened/Tasted

• Best sushi of my life at Minami in Vancouver (BC)
• Tacos galore in Mexico City (Tacos El Huequito all time favorite for the al pastor)
• Finally read Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Heard to Say

• “Did you turn the stove off?”

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