As we approach the end of 2011, I've been trolling through the last year's worth of entries in this space. It's fun, and I feel like it brings genuine insight too. I appreciate the sense of perspective afforded by such personal historical archives.

Initially, I thought about compiling some sort of "Top Ten" listing for 2011, but in the end I decided to condense things more in terms of themes and trends that I've noticed from the last year. Below are some of the things that have stood out to me the most.

First of all, I observed that my kids have grown a year older in 2011. It's shockingly noticeable. They just keep changing and developing, and my love for them continues to change and develop right along with them. I'm unspeakably grateful for Elliot, Olivia, and Cor. Our family in general. Marci and I  celebrated our 13th Wedding Anniversary in 2011, as well, which I consider one of the greatest experiences of my life to date. As much as they all cause me frustration at times, I feel like my family has been one of the greatest sources of blessing in my life -- 2011 notwithstanding.

Also this year, it really stood out that our family got to visit some amazing places: Belgium, France, England, Greece... and of course various places in the Netherlands and the United States as well. I've been privileged to travel quite a bit throughout my lifetime, but this year was exceptional. There are wonderful memories from each of these places -- walking among the ruins of ancient Philippi, losing and then regaining a backpack in Brussels, walking along the sheer whit cliffs of Etretat, walking through London's Hyde Park with the autumn leaves falling around us -- but perhaps my favorite traveling experience of the year was my personal retreat at the Benedictusberg in the beautiful hills of Limburg. For many years to come, I think, 2011 will remain in my ind as a year of memorable travels.

2011 also happened to be  the year that my paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Asp, passed away in July. She was a very special woman, who left behind a rich legacy both in word and in deed. Her Memoires of a Minnesota Pastor's Wife remain one of the best books that I've read in 2011 (and I have to say that I read a lot of good books this year!). I now have one surviving grandparent, in North Dakota, and I hope that I might get to see hm again in 2012. Their generation is a particularly special generation, having lived through the Great Depression, the Second World War, and many other significant events in America's "Golden Age." I feel the heaviness of history more directly on my shoulders as they gradually pass.

Also in 2011, I noticed that I spent a lot of time thinking about church, both in general (as in "The Church Universal") and in regards to the specific body of believers whom I serve as pastor. It was actually a really refreshing year for these kinds of considerations. In retrospect, I can see that 2010 was a really dark and difficult year for me, ministry-wise (dealing with the departure of my beloved co-pastor, taking on more ministry responsibilities that were outside my areas of natural gifting and experience, nearly burning out in the process); but 2011 was a kind of spiritual reawakening for me. It wasn't a perfect year of ministry, by any means, but I felt God's nearness through it all. By God's grace, I can take satisfaction in the last year of ministry.

So those were some of the main themes and trends from 2011... A good year, in many ways. I'm sure there are plenty of new adventures for the year ahead -- but I will walk that road by faith.

I received a rather unusual e-mail this morning, from a television producer in the UK. The communication resulted from a piece that I wrote almost four years ago, specifically a story about digging through my daughter's feces for money. With the permission of the sender, I've copied the original e-mail here below:

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 10:21 AM, Siaron James (Miss) <siaron.james@cwmnida.tv> wrote:

Dear Pastor Asp,
I hope you don't mind me contacting you with a slightly odd question.
I am currently working on a documentary for the UK TV channels BBC & S4C provisionally entitled  ‘The Toilet – An Unspoken History’;  which will be looking at the design, cultural and social history of the toilet, the toilet of today and its future.
Part of our filming will take us to the Netherlands, and I am particularly looking for a shelf-type toilet in Amsterdam for our crew to film.
I came across the picture of your toilet on your blog and would like to ask you if you would be willing to let our crew film it.
The crew will be in Amsterdam on Thursday 8th December, so I wonder if you could tell me if it would be at all possible for them to film the toilet sometime on that day? I cannot give you an exact time yet, but if there is a period of time that is preferable to you, please let me know so that I can work it into the schedule.
Of course we will do our best not to cause too much disruption. The crew is a very small one – only 3 people (cameraman, soundman, and presenter/director) and the filming should only take an hour at the very most.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require more information before deciding - if you would like me to phone you for a chat I'd be happy to.
I look forward to hearing from you soon,
Kindest regards,
Siaron

Unfortunately, I had to offer the disappointing news that our shelf toilet was replaced two years ago. But I did mention that I'd be willing to post something here -- always up for cultural curiosities and a long-time fan of documentary production -- in the hope that someone else in the Amsterdam area might be willing to let their shelf-style toilet be documented for posterity's sake. The response was as follows:

If you find you know anyone that has one (and may be up for us filming it) please do put them in touch with me as soon as possible - ideally it needs to be in Amsterdam, although it might also be ok if it’s somewhere en route between Amsterdam and Schiphol airport.

So what do you say, Amsterdam friends? Does anyone know of a good shelf-style toilet in the neighborhood? I'll be curious to see if something might work out...

I'm kind of a nerd for palindromes (words and numbers which read the same both backwords and forwards)... So I figured I simply had to recognize this moment and post something at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11. Not that I really have all that much to say... I just wanted to recognize the moment. :-)

Just one more fun fact, as a parting shot: Did you know that we are a rare generation with the privilege of living through two palindromic years during the course of our lifetime: 1991 and 2002? Ours is the first generation with this privilege since those who lived through 999 and 1001... Can you guess when the next generational occurence will come along?

I've recently made some changes in my electronic communications, primarily motivated by a desire to update the way that I synchronize my calendar, contacts, and e-mail across multiple electronic devices. The upshot is that I'm basically adding another e-mail address to my ever-expanding electronic identity.

Marci rolled her eyes when she noticed the changes that I was making (it was a three-day process to get everything set up the way I wanted). She was baffled by the addition of a fifth active e-mail account, when she barely manages to make full use of her one e-mail account. And to be honest, I can completely understand her bewilderment. If Microsoft would have played nice and let me do everything that I wanted to do through its services, I would have gladly processed everything through my Microsoft (Hotmail) account. But because of a few quirks in their system -- or because of my own ineptitude in figuring out their system -- I opted to update my system through Google, who offers a more comprehensive and more flexible package.

It wasn't anything personal. It wasn't a pledge of allegiance to any new corporate empire. It was just a practical decision -- like picking up a passport for a country in which I already function as a de facto citizen and resident. Fortunately in today's electronic environment, I don't have to renounce my citizenship in any of the other on-line "countries." I just get to pick up another passport, like some kind of diplomat or secret CIA agent.

So what does this mean for all my friends and family who want to keep in touch with me, electronically? Absolutely nothing.

The marvel of modern technology is that no one has to update his or her address book unless they want to. Ultimately, it really doesn't matter which of my multiple e-mail addresses is used. I think of it like an elaborate stacking of funnels, and I've got it set up so they all funnel into the same location in the end anyway. A person could send an e-mail to my Hotmail address (which is the account that I've had the longest, going all the way back to 1995 at BGSU), or to my Gmail address (which is relatively new), or to my Amsterdam50 address, or my GCM address, or to the e-mail associated with my personal website -- and they will all reach me simultaneously through my Gmail account. Pretty slick, huh? At least I hope it's pretty slick.

The interactivity of blogging always used to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the experience for me: reading and responding to the comments. It's what separated blogging from journaling or sending out newsletters. It allowed for some back-and-forth.

But over the last several months, dealing with "spam" has become an increasingly frustrating part of the whole experience. Awhile back, I had to switch to allowing comments only under moderation (that is, every comment had to be approved before it appeared on-line). I've tried a few other solutions as well, but unfortunately, the problem has persisted and intensified. So for now, I've decided to disallow comments on EricAsp.com.

I still hope that I can work out a different solution in the weeks to come, but in the meantime I  encourage interaction through the Facebook version of this content (which I will be more faithful to update, in view of the fact that Facebook's automatic import function seems to be a bit quirky). And I will do my best to keep you updated on new developments in the future.