I celebrate the holidays with my friends with an annual fondue party.  Everyone brings something to dip or the dip itself.  One person noted at last night’s get together that we’ve mostly known each other now for twenty years.

Perhaps because we’re from Colorado, or simply our generation, not sure, but we are an athletic lot.  Not necessarily healthy.  A fair number of us have replacement body parts.  Several have artificial knees and ventured how it would be cool to eventually get blade runners.  So much of our talk centers on our sports pursuits and our decaying health.   Half my group of friends could easily pass for under forty by looks, but to listen to us talk you’d guess closer to sixty.  Ask us how we’re doing and replies come back enumerating blood counts and protein deficiencies.  This has to be a sign of aging.

My friends are well educated and all lateral thinkers, so conversation can steer in any direction.  But we tend toward the inane and don’t often discuss politics.  With that said, I barely arrived last night before being asked if I believed in God, and the Russian investigation did come up at one point.  Maybe we’re maturing.  Probably not though.  As discussion turned toward the recent spate of celebrity sexual abuse allegations, there were no deep thoughts on the need to establish equality and respect for women in general.  It was all jokes, with the most ribald coming from the ladies.  Apparently aging and maturity are two different things.

For my part, trying to come off sounding clever and sophisticated, I brought up bitcoin and blockchain tech, letting everyone know of my recent Amazon order for a hardware wallet.  I was immediately challenged to explain the value of this virtual commodity.  I couldn’t.  Honestly, I don’t even understand how we derive value from fiat currencies.  Some things though are like time travel, trying to understand how they work ruins the story.  I’m not investing in bitcoin.  I just like to participate in tech to better understand it.  That’s what writers do in order to speak to things.  They experience it.  I’ll purchase less bitcoin than I spent on the wallet.

In the end, it didn’t matter what we talked on, the talking itself was the means to the end.  Seeing everyone doing well and sharing in laughter has launched my holiday season with good cheer.  Karen has our house looking festive and I’m excited now to visit family at the end of the year.  Happy holidays everyone.