December 25, 2013
Ithaca
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Merry Christmas! Well, I hope it is some of you---I have spent the month trying to escape this festival of consumerism and sentimentality. This year the onslaught has been so terrible that I have had to flee high up into the mountains aboard a gondola, hoping my swap-meet skis will be fast enough to evade Santa's reindeer.

It's been three years since I've written a Christmas letter, and while that is probably not long enough for most of you, I'm going to write one anyway. Fear not! I have a self-imposed 500-word limit, and the "Delete" key is mere millimeters from your pinky finger!

I spent the first six months of the year slogging through all 1200 pages of David Foster Wallace's doorstop INFINITE JEST. Second time's the charm! That seems to be how I read big books, anyway. Infinite Jest was exhilarating and emotionally draining, and as much as I enjoyed LIVING in it for so long---an experience that's all too rare with my superficial and scatterbrained reading habits---the book describes a fundamentally pessimistic world, and that's been bugging me. (Have you read it? Will you talk about it with me??)

Finishing that main intellectual adventure of the year coincided with the start of my main physical adventure---a fortnight-long roadtrip with friends from New York to SF. I could fill an entire letter with stories, so I'll just mention that a) we stayed in the cabin of some open-source software developer whose only connection to the grid was a phone line and 56K modem, b) we saw a bear, a rattlesnake, armadillos, and alligators all more-or-less in the wild, and c) I managed to convince only one of my fellow travelers to spend half a day in Ciudad Juarez ordering tacos in bad Spanish with me. I've driven cross-country numerous times, but always by myself, and it turns out---like so much else in life---roadtrips are more with other people! (On the other hand, it also turns out that no one else is as partial to a 50/50 mix of NPR and country as I am.)

Speaking of doing things with other people: 2013 brought THREE weddings of no fewer than SIX beloved friends! 2014 already promises at least one more---can we increase that number? can we beat 2013 and have FOUR of you get married? (Or maybe eight, depending on whom you marry.) If gender has been the block: as of last week's court decision in Utah (!), there are now EIGHTEEN states where you can get same-sex married! Hurrah! And some of you have been making good use of your existing marriages: 2013 brought the births of THREE (four?) tiny cousins.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that 2013 brought a great sadness, too---the death of my friend Collin. We had been lab partners in sixth grade and friends since. I'm hesitant to bring this up since I don't want to turn this into a dreadful and dolorous letter---that wouldn't be fitting with Collin's personality. He was thoughtful and extraverted and one of the first people I had real, meaningful conversations with, in 8th and 9th grade. Not a day has gone by since he was killed that I haven't wished we were still having those conversations.

Births, deaths, marriage, life---everything that fills the non-journalistic sections of the newspaper, and yet how much more meaningful than a municipal procurement scandal, or arms treaty negotiations! 

I hope that your 2014 will be filled with love, hard work, and---hopefully---our visit.


love to all,

Andrew


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amha@uchicago.edu
(607) 592-4759