Friends,
Happy New Year! I hope you had a restful end to 2018; an
opportunity to count your blessings and examine how you might make 2019 even
better. In my household, as many of you know, New Year’s is a big deal –so big
I spend the last week of the year making the preparations with the help of my
family. For the past dozen years or so we’ve hosted an Año Viejo party, an
Ecuadorian tradition where the central event is the burning of one or more
effigies representing the past year. Out with the old, in with the new… that
sort of thing. Over the years these effigies have become larger and more
elaborate, and building them has been a cathartic way to be grateful and let go
of the passage of time. This year’s theme had Stephen Hawking (who passed in
March) trying to hitch a ride from Spaceman and his cherry red Tesla roadster
(launched into space by Elon Musk’s SpaceX in February). I also included a few
Easter eggs. If you pay close attention to the photo of the early stage of the
roadster construction you’ll notice the structural scaffolding is made of some
discarded foamboard containing several explorations for what became the new
Windstream Enterprise brand (launched in February). You’ll also notice Stephen
Hawking is wearing a Windstream green shirt in the old brand color. Of course
Spaceman is wearing a yellow vest, a nod to the protests in France. While some
may consider my ephemeral art an act of madness, I think many things that
inspire us are precisely that, outrageous things we do because we can. I’ve
attached a few photos for your amusement. So grab a Dunkin’ donut and enjoy!
–in case you didn’t catch it from last week’s note, my claim they were going
out of business was an “Inocentada” ---loosely “April fools’”, in keeping with
that other Ecuadorian tradition.
Happy
Friday!
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