Dear William,

 Hello and Happy Christmas Writing to you this year from Cheltenham via Avebury were in addition to the largest megalithic stone circle in the world the pagans were out in force playing drums and praying to stones it was in the local parlance(probably not)-massive! Topping off the trip, nearby Silbury Hill stands as the largest man-made mound in Europe comparative in height and volume to the roughly contemporary Egyptian pyramids-in England! Speaking of piles of ummm dirt, 2017 was once again full of them in the news. Still despite the many backward, ill informed, neonationalist, greedy, intolerant, misogynist types in the world, plenty of progress was apparent. Even in Saudi Arabia, were in addition to other reforms, women can now drive cars by themselves-how 21st century! While the public policy response to the real eminent threats from climate related disasters like hurricanes, forest fires and drought serve as reminder that we are all sharing the same planet and need to do bett...

July 28, 2009 Vacation day #2 On my to do list for this week to begin and maintain a journal that I am committed to regardless of the peaks and troughs that time allows. In preparation I have been especially interested in reading entries deposited in varies places, notebooks, napkins, etc. earlier that communicate the mundane daily events and hope to stick to that recipe. The actual accounting of time provides for memory maintenance and proper placing of things. Otherwise, I have always thought or debated what the goal of an exercise like this should be and having not too many important things to say I will stick to the mundane time keeping with respect to personal matters. Furthermore, I don't have a particular audience that I am shooting for so I will pick one and who better to write to or about than the particular growth and development of William Van Namen-chief cat annoyance officer. This is perhaps too harsh a title, although Marian wouldn't disagree, the better qu...

Ho Ho Hello, Wishing you and yours a Happy Christmas and healthy new year. We’re spending the day at home in Lewes with our most splendid tree, carefully prepared menu of culinary delights, and special guests. As the calendar comes to the end of a year marked by important national races with uncertain, destabilising outcomes here’s a roundup to bend your ear and provide some cheer. While prospects for 2017 aren’t exactly an empty canvas we can still paint what we like to make it beautiful so let’s do it. The year in a few words : Will, now 12, is back on the bottom of the pile in his first year of jacket, tie and carefully manicured hair secondary school. Highlights include a Distinction on his Grade 4 Cello exam, day out at Goodwood Festival of Speed and Mercedes driving experience for his birthday reaching a top speed of 35 mph and third gear. A Segway entered his life this summer and forever changed how he interacts with the outdoors. These days he prefers commun...

Hello and Happy Christmas, Writing to indulge you in our yearly happenings and sending our love to you and yours at this most celebratory time of year.  We're in Perth, Western Australia where the cloudless skies and cool refreshing water provide a welcome reprieve and beautifully relaxing end to a pretty good year.   On to the year in a few words: William, now 11, is in his last year of primary school! As such he wears many hats: car aficionado, conscientious school council member, music, table tennis and drama club participant and still reigning chief of the contagious laugh. He and Marian continue to make beautiful music with their cello’s passing grade 2 after just one year. We had a proud parental moment when he finished first in a solo competition and is now on to prep for grade 4 exam. Apparently my parental input consists of reminding him of Ned Flanders-an opening I have willingly exploited for maximum embarrassment with great pleasure. hahaha! This lette...

Ho HO Hello It’s that time of year again wishing you and your people a merry Christmas and all the best for a happy and healthy new year.  Here with some of our whereabouts and what not for the year.  Writing to you from Shipston on Stour, deep in the horsey heart of the Cotswolds, where the yellow Jurassic Limestone houses and classic country living make for a nice change from our busy Lewes lives. We’ve already taken in our pantomime, Beauty and the Beast, at the Oxford Playhouse, and Christmas Eve movie, The Hobbit, with the pleasure of being with some good people(+food) we're feeling pretty blessed. The Year in as few words as possible: Following on Marian and Rosie’s inspiration William, now 10, has picked up the cello.  With a great deal of support from his mom is now making some beautiful music that we’re always glad to hear. He’s pretty good and this activity looks to be sticking so we’re pleased for that and with group session, lessons and pending Gr...

Ho Ho Ho, Happy Christmas and so long 2013! Well, its that time of year again when its cold, days are short, the year is coming to a close and we seek the shelter, warmth and love of family and friends.  If you’re reading this we send big love, hugs, kisses and wishes that you find loads of Lindt balls in your stockings.  Writing this year from Lewes, for the first time, where we are spending our first Christmas at home with special guest, Oma, visiting enroute to Paris to celebrate a special birthday with Tante Willy and seeking respite from the deep midwestern chill-for 6 weeks anyway.   Before we start on the updates and other nonsense know this, apparently if you’re reading this before dinner on Christmas Day you’ve already eaten your daily calorie intake and will start the New Year some 6 lbs heavier, you pig!   Who cares? Not me, feast and watch football all day anyway but maybe take a walk as well, a nap if you can manage and your favourite C...

Greetings, Well, it’s that time of year again to travel near and far, give and receive thoughtfully planned & anticipated gifts, eat too much, watch Elf, take pause on what the year has wrought, possibly write it down and bother everyone you know with having to read it. This year we’ve traveled from Lewes to Mutley Farm outside Bridgnorth, Shropshire where the ground is saturated, the roads flooded, the smell of cows and their activities as close as they've ever been outdoors, the wifi nonexistent, 3G only available close to my corner of the bed(relief), the board games in ready supply and the isolation, beauty of the barren oak trees and rolling countryside terrific.   Our thoughts as always, go out to everyone we love but could not be near and hope that you ate half as good as I’ve done in the last week-in which case you’ve made out alright. I’m feeling marginally less like a stranger in a strange land these days, as much as that is possible...

Exiting the party conventions, the theme guiding both Republican and Democratic strategies aims to highlight past electoral glory.  Not surprisingly, how far back each party would have you selectively remember is variable requiring additional research for many of today’s young voters.   Still viewing the 2012 narratives through the nostalgia filter-reminding the public when they were strong and the people concurred with their leadership is the horse race, marketing campaign we’re watching through November.   So it’s fair to say that the GOP, in an effort to garner credibility for its current flock of candidates and policy proposals, have attempted an 80’s nostalgia tour doubling as party platform.  Unwilling to rehash the achievements and legacies of the two most recent Republican Presidents for different reasons, we’re back congressing with the Republican party of the early 80’s in the hopes they might forget the space in between.  Why so far back ...

From Washington Post Column- Fareed Zakaria is one of the few commentators who gets that comparative politics matters: The U.S. economy is recovering well The International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook makes for gloomy reading. Growth projections have been revised downward almost everywhere, especially in Europe and the big emerging markets such as China. And yet, when looking out over the next four years — the next presidential term — the IMF projects that the United States will be the strongest of the world’s rich economies. U.S. growth is forecast to average 3 percent, much stronger than that of Germany or France (1.2 percent) or even Canada (2.3 percent). Increasingly, the evidence suggests that the United States has come out of the financial crisis of 2008 in better shape than its peers — because of the actions of its government. Perhaps the most important cause of America’s relative health is the Federal Reserve. Ben Bernanke understood the depths o...

Dear Opa, Happy Birthday!!! This message is a long time in coming, variations of which have been written and discarded many times over many years, but now as then proves necessary in order to communicate a message of heart felt love and appreciation.  I suppose until recently I always thought them a bit presumptive, better saved for another day or moment but with my inability to be near to say them to both you and Oma personally the time for words yet unspoken has arrived. As I write this I can't help but list the names too numerous to put down here of others who might also have purpose to write this message and do so for them as well.  For your brother John, taking his son as your own and providing an opportunity to move to America for a life filled with more opportunities for his family than he could have ever grown up believing.  For my mom and dad, Jackie, myself and even Eric, though in typical, stubborn Van Namen fashion he's not likely to admit. ...

Before there was email or Facebook, text messaging or blogs, Skype or well you get the point…there was a little Christmas tradition known as the Christmas card.  Some people even went so far as to provide a supplement, in the UK it’s called the “round robin letter”, meant to provide a years’ worth of information that arrives in the post, to be held in your hand and read at a moment of leisure.  There’s some controversy regarding the merit, effectiveness and usually content(or lack thereof)of communicating the vagaries of life’s ups and downs, health and welfare, love and well-wishing in this manner but I’ve always had a secret crush on the effort and idea of year in review via random recollections.  Marian’s uncle, Brian, has been exceeding expectations since I can remember and I enjoy hearing his voice in my head as he recounts the years tales.  I thought since we don’t get to see most of you good people these days it would have to suffice.  Anyway, the format...