Favorite Posts of 2009 (1)

Some other bloggers have been reviewing their year and listing their best or favorite posts of 2009. I've never done this, but, out of curiosity, thought I'd give it a try this year.

So, in chronological order and posted over the next two days, here are my picks, each with an excerpt, interspersed with some of my favorite photos from The Cassandra Pages this year. (I'm supposed to be an editor, but this wasn't easy! I was looking not just at the writing, but for posts that are representative of the general themes here and those that readers especially liked, or which elicited a good discussion.)

 

In the crowd waiting to get admitted to the National Mall

1) January 26: The Epilogue to my Inauguration Journal - a series chronicling and reflecting on our trip to Washington to attend the Obama's inauguration:

Here we were, a crowd of tree-huggers and children of slaves, old draft dodgers and peaceniks, and the poorest of the poor – a mob of outcasts and sinners for sure – who for this day had been passed graciously through the gates to stand as witnesses on the frozen turf of this symbolic home-ground of democracy...

 

There had to be one food picture...this one's from a winter lunch at a friend's house out in the Quebec countryside...

2) March 14: Angels in Winter - a guest post from Rome, written by Teju Cole

Before American exceptionalism, there was Roman exceptionalism, to a much more severe degree. Our Capitol is named for the Capitoline Hill. Close parentheses. 

Thus primed with my skepticism, a skepticism compounded with an anti-colonial instinct, I entered the museums on the Capitoline Hill...

...and a natural still-life...

3) March 20: Now We Are Six - reflections on six years of blogging

If our goal is to write - to express ourselves and try to say something creative and meaningful about our lives and our world, hopefully sharing it with others in a way that's free of market restraints - rather than being crushed under the weight of a dying edifice, we'd better do it in a supportive environment. The ephemerality and jumpiness of modern culture and mass media have affected the web a lot now, too. Distraction, and opportunities to fritter away huge amounts of time are everywhere - microblogging and social networking seem, to me, to be mostly that, unless you find ways to use them creatively. I worry that too many talented people these days have simply given up and said, "what's the use," after looking at all these factors. That's too bad because it's essentially bowing to an artistic type of consumerism, where the end product - recognition, money, publicity, critical acclaim - are given more weight than the process itself. Completely understandable in the context of our present world...

 

...and an urban shot...

4) April 1, 2009 Thirty Thoughts in Thirty Minutes - a response to Dana Guthrie Martin's 140-character challenge for April Fool's Day, which got me hooked on writing micropoetry:

8. My grandparents lived an entire life without rushing, consumed daily bacon and martinis, lived to 90.

9. They did not eat radioactive snow or genetically modified tomatoes grown in dusted Californian fields.

10. My grandfather liked a mess of bullheads for supper; they swam in a pail on the slate steps; were fried in bacon fat.

11. He kept bacon grease in a tin can in the refrigerator, for popcorn-making on Friday evenings, and fried eggs.

 

This one actually goes with the post below.

5) May 15, 2009 Copies and Copiers - a post and discussion about painters who copy old master paintings in art museums:

In one of the big rooms devoted to Franz Hals and Rembrandt, we came upon these gentlemen. The man in the white shirt was making a copy - a very accurate and fine one - of this " Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat", a Flemish painting from the 1630s attributed to Jan Cossiers. The man in the suit, with his back to us here, was haranguing him. I didn't catch the whole conversation, not wanting to be any ruder than I'd already been, sneaking their picture, but the gist of it was "We've already got original works of art, we don't need copies, what do you think you're doing?"

Numbers 6-10 will be up tomorrow.

Comments

[hal lewis]

If I may ask your feelings on the first year of Obama's term?

To be fair I will state I feel betrayed to say the least.

I do believe at this point he is incapable of leading or holding this office. His steady diet of lies, backtracks or what ever word fits has shown me that his campaign was PR not truth. He did not believe what he was saying in his speeches which now are only empty words.

His actions during the Health Care bill (?) were beyond belief. I can't help thinking about his story of his mother. In the hospital near death fighting the insurance company for payment of her bills. And he, Obama, holds a secret meeting with the insurance companies and cuts a deal that will change nothing in that area. Who would do that to their mother's memory?

Was it the biggest story of the year, YES, and the most sorrowful for me and I know many more. So much hope was in the air, as you wrote in you piece, feelings that we came out of the darkness into an era of Peace and Justice, now neither seem possible.

I write this in the spirit of continuing a good discussion.

[Beth]

Hi Hal, thanks for writing this, I'm glad if this end-of-the-year post can spur some further discussion. In general I feel acutely disappointed, rather than betrayed, because I don't blame the man as much as the system. I think (as is usually the case, but sadly more true this time) Obama promised much more than he could deliver, and found himself as captain of a ship that can't be turned around, but merely nudged in a slightly better direction while fine words fly by like the wind. The health care debacle was predictable - I guess we should be glad something passed, but it's way way less than what's needed. I feel the same sharp disappointment on climate issues. My sense of betrayal is not over these points, though, but over Afghanistan: sending more troops is, to me, not a compromise but something unforgivable: a slap in the face to the people who put him in office, and an indication that this is a person willing to cave in on key issues. That bodes very badly for the future of this administration. I was also quite upset by him invoking "just war" in his Nobel Peace Prize speech. Basically, the policies we're seeing are what I would have expected from Hillary Clinton, not Obama: maintaining the status quo, not implementing real, visionary change. What's depressing is that real change may not be possible: this man had the best chance and the biggest mandate in a generation, and it's not working; the forces against it are too great. But I'm still glad he's in there, rather than his opponents, and hope he can accomplish some of what he set out to do.

[Dave]

I think actually Hillary would've been a better president, albeit slightly more hawkish. Like a lot of people, I supported Obama because I did believe he would be better on foreign relations, but at this point it's not clear if the diffenence is one of substance or style. (And conversely, who knows about Hilary -- how much of her hawkishness as a senator was just in preparation for the presidential race, knowing she couldn't appear weak.) Then again, I did not expect a radical break from Wilsonian imperialism, so like you I'd say I feel disappointed rather than betrayed. There are a number of areas where he has shown himself unwilling to spend polital capital for progressive goals.

Good choice of best posts, by the way. I think I would've made the very same selection so far.

[Dick]

Excellent choices, all, Beth, but March 20th jangled with me in particular.

[Beth]

Thanks, Dave. Curious to hear what you think of the final ten.

And thanks, Dick. I'm gratified you remembered or looked up these links, and that those thoughts on blogging resonated with you too.

[Vivian]

I'm eager for the other six, Beth. Hoping maybe for the dentist sequence. One of the things I love about your blog is the way you piece together the different scraps/levels of concern/ that make public and private life. Because we all live in both and supporting the shifts in focus is one of the capacities you possess so richly. So the scraps become treasures and this is a gift to all of us who have more than a single pointed focus. Which is not the same as lacking singleness of heart, but it often feels like a betrayal of self ...Au contraire! .. I submit your year's oeuvre as proof!

[Beth]

Oh, Vivian, thanks. As the year winds down I'm reflecting, as usual, on where I've been last year and where I'm going next (a big question right now), and this question of single-pointedness vs. piecework is always the crux of it. It's good to hear that the way I am is somehow helpful.