I decided that it is not too late to answer these six questions drawn from the lengthy end-of-year surveys I have seen circulating in the blogosphere.
1) What did you do in 2025 that you’ve never done before?
I led the chants before a crowd of thousands, at the Hands Off! rally in town on April 5, 2025.
Never before, and if the world is smart, never again. However, if it furthers the cause of democracy, I will do it. And I think we have seen that the world is not particularly smart these days.
But in the past 9 years, I seem to end up doing all sorts of things because nobody else is willing or available to do them. Play all the music for the church service on a snowy Sunday? Sure. Speak to the media about the rally? Sure. Be in charge of managing the crowd? Sure. Of all the things I’ve done that I’m not best at, this was the least best-at of all. I am supremely unqualified to manage a crowd. I don’t have the temperament nor the physical strength. Luckily, that one time, it turned out I just had to say to people repeatedly, “No, you cannot have the microphone for a minute to say F#&k them.”
In 2025 I started holding small gatherings at a local sandwich shop, ‘advertising’ just in the various grassroots groups I am in. These were gatherings of like-minded people just to chat, in the hopes of strengthening our sense of community. These have been life-giving to me.
2) Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, not that I can recall.
3) Did anyone close to you die?
Several long-time and beloved members of my church died. No one in the immediate family died in 2025, but the family generation previous to mine is all gone now. Functioning fine, but also still grieving. I am still wrapping up estate stuff. Life ends but estate stuff goes on and on and on.
4) What places did you visit?
North to Women’s retreat
Cleveland, OH
Philadelphia, PA
Boston, MA
Washington, DC
Denver, CO (for work)
South Fork of the Shenandoah River, VA
5) What would you like to have in 2026 that you didn’t have in 2025?
A functioning and thriving democracy. Pleeeeze.
Normal retirement prospects. What I am faced with is vastly different than I had imagined how I would spend time during retirement. I am not a natural at politics, but I feel compelled to defend democracy and the dignity of human beings as best I can.
A youtube announcement from a podcaster I follow has me reminiscing forward about what I had imagined my life in retirement would be, but now will never be, thanks to the $#&* in charge of this benighted country.
Dr. Dan McClellan is a scholar of the bible and, shall I say, iconoclast, who does the podcast Data over Dogma with the other Dan, Dan Beecher. The podcast’s goal is to combat misinformation about the Bible and religion. He announced he is running an online class on Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, Feb through May.
In a different world, I would be taking that class. I would LOVE to take that class. But I don’t have time in this particular version of the universe.
6) What dates from 2025 will be etched in your memory forever?
Seems like I’d prefer not to have to dwell on 2025 events. That said, I enjoyed most of the travel we did. The time with the family in the house along the Shenandoah River was quite therapeutic. And Nov 4, 2025 was the day we swept the local elections - an encouraging day in a sea of…. whatever you want to call what we are in.
I saw these end-of-year survey questions most recently on Daria's blog.
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