A happy New Year to all you and yours, as we begin 2026.

Transformation has been my watch word this past year. In August I wrote to you about my retirement. Bryon and I spent two months in Orlando, Fl, in October and November, rediscovering what it was like to be connected to a community of people. We discovered we liked living an analog life in Orlando, and imagine we will be moving there sometime in 2027. A shout out to all of our friends in Orlando who made us feel involved and welcome.

Our return to Iowa has been gray. Not only has the weather been snowy and cold, quite the readjustment, but we also lost our sister-in-law Deb just before the holiday. The U.S. continues to be its own unique problem. I am more optimistic than I was about the news and elections. I want justice for the Epstein and Trump victims at a very personal level.

I am changing. In the fall, I had a conversation with a writer friend about whether I should be writing something that would be important, that would change the world and the circumstances of what we are going through. It seemed a well-intentioned thought, but it was the sort of naive thought I would have had as a young woman. I understand at 60 I am part of a whole. Besides, which hat does one pull an earth-changing document of? My writer friend wrote an excellent newsletter considering reality and hyperreality, suggesting that reality in and of itself is an appropriate response to what is going on.

Ironically, it looks as if I have spent my fall in the hyperreality of Orlando, but in a way I wasn’t there for the imaginary princesses, the planet of Batuu, or Darkmoor at Epic Universe. My love for immersive and interactive entertainment may look like an escape, but I see these true interactions with real people as a way of moving away from the online and illusion and into the truth of what interactions with real people are like. In Orlando, I could enjoy a meal with a real person and have a conversation, or dress up as a monster and enjoy a real day with a real friend, or pretend to talk to a puppet droid while establishing human connection with an artist.

This will be my year of re-establishing community. I have been pursuing dreams of publication and art for a long time, never free from the perspective of proving myself worthy to the world. Now, I wish to see people, to talk, and to be involved in these creative efforts for their own sake, just to be human. I wish to experience the authentic, the human, and the true. The humanity is the point. I’m tired of watching a society be less than human, whether that’s through AI, status, lies, or manipulation. I would like my third act to be authentic and alive.

I hope you will enjoy me in understanding the virtue of broader and resolute truth, even when the trappings surrounding it seem to be in fantasy. I hope you will connect with the people in your life, and I hope the next year helps you re-establish what it means best to you to live in a meaningful world.