What I know now that I didn't know then

Think about what you know now, January 2012, that you didn’t know a year ago. Standing in the afterglow of 2011, let’s pause to look back at how these 365 days have changed us, as individuals, as a nation and as card-carrying members of the human race.

One year ago I was waiting and planning, thinking about the “trip of a lifetime” that my husband and I had booked. We would leave from Bangkok and sail for 30 days, from Thailand to Indonesia to India to Dubai. I was waiting and fearing a cataclysmic terrorist attack or meteorological event that might cancel our plans. I was waiting, too, for the economy to recover enough to feel OK about spending money. I only half believed we would ever make the trip.

I was waiting to see who the Republicans would run in the 2012 presidential race. As it turned out, they produced more nuts than an Almond Joy bar, as the Huffington Post wrote. I was waiting to see which new books would enrich my days. I was waiting for a lifelong friend to respond to one last cancer treatment. I was waiting …

Every year begins like a thriller. What adventures lie ahead? What delights await us? What pain and travail will block our path? Who will be standing at the end of 365 days? What will be learned from another year on Earth? Last year, as always, fate, luck and fortune intervened, trumping expectations.

Perhaps the most annoying, aggravating, irritating and generally obnoxious presence continued to be Sarah Palin, who played the media for big bucks, and then eventually — and predictably — dropped out of the Republican race for the White House. Her lasting legacy is the Tea Party contingency in the U.S. Congress, which has run effective governance right off the rails. We’ll remember the Tea Party and its stranglehold on John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and Eric Kantor, three legislators who have distinguished themselves by demonstrating an appalling lack of political courage and a small-minded devotion to small ideas.