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Happy New Year!

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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