What a year. If you had told me this time last year that in approximately 365 days I would be putting on my coat to get lacinato kale at the little market between 90th and 91st on Broadway, I would have thought you were nuts. Nearly as crazy would have been the notion that Sean's idea of festive new year's feasting would absolutely require dark leafy greens packed full of nutrients, but lo and behold, both of these things have come to pass. It seems to be one last fitting twist in a decade where the world has swerved and veered in alarmingly unpredictable ways - a decade full of many terrible things, and a few startlingly beautiful ones.
Ten years ago I was at Merrion Square in Dublin, Ireland, ringing out the old and wondering what the future held. It was a landmark year - I was getting my footing in a new place, and the future was a blank - a huge hazy limitless vista. I felt brim full of potential and uncertainty. Standing at the edge of this next decade, that feeling has come back. Here I am again, dropped down somewhere new, scrambling to make a home for my little family and looking ahead from a vantage point I'd never thought I'd reach. The future is just as much an unknown as it was then, but I've become more comfortable with uncertainty in the interim.
Here's hoping 2010 brings mainly good, with no more trouble than we can comfortably bear. In the meantime, we'll be eating our kale and hoping for the best.
