21,052 Visitors in One Year + Duke + Theo & Arts

So I know I'm not CNN or The New York Times, or even Tila Tequila. But I've completed one year of keeping track of blog visits. 21,052 ain't too shabby. It doesn't matter of course; it's mostly silly numbers. And you never know, I might have visited myself half that time. But as I look at the list of countries in the MapClusters counter, I can proudly say that I mimic a (very, very unusual) summer Olympics medal count:

USA: 17,266 visits
Canada: 829 visits
United Kingdom in a close second but coming in at an honorable third: 811
Germany at a steep drop: 150 visits
Australia barely missing fourth at: 148 visits
India the next world superpower muscling in at: 119 visits

And on the list goes. I love the bottom of the list.

CUT: Ack! I'm now writing one day later (Monday, June 1) and MapClusters has just recycled my list to zero. I've lost all record of countries visited. Crap. Apparently today is DAY 1: A NEW BEGINNING.

United States (US) 34
Canada (CA) 5
Turkey (TR) 5
Algeria (DZ) 2
Poland (PL) 1
Norway (NO) 1
United Kingdom (GB) 1
Germany (DE) 1
Australia (AU) 1

I'm as popular in Algeria as I am in Norway.

Anyhoo, the point of all this is to say thank you for visiting me here. I've kept this blog chiefly as a writing discipline. Secondarily it's allowed me to work out some of my thinking about art and the church, culture and Christian faith. It's been a pleasure to interact with you in the comments section and I appreciate many of your honest, sometimes challenging thoughts. Keep the challenges coming. I do apologize that I wasn't the most prompt in my replies. But I'm excited about the next year of blogging. I've had this blog since November 2004 and by November 2009 I'll be blogging about life at Duke University.

Phaedra and I have had a great time so far (we arrived this past Friday, we depart this coming Saturday). We enjoyed a lovely Saturday repast with Steve and Sally Breedlove as well as Tim and Skylar. Steve's the rector at All Saints Anglican. Sally's a spiritual director. Tim just graduated from Duke Divinity and Skylar's an artist and quite the baker (bakeress?). Sunday we worshiped at All Saints, then joined their community for a wonderful picnic afterwards. Sunday evening, the Center for Reconciliation's summer institute began in earnest.

Last night and all day today I've had the privilege of participating in an exploratory meeting on behalf of a Duke Divinity School initiative with theology and the arts. The hope is that it will soon become an institute. Some sharp people gathered in the alumni room. We imagined efforts related to teaching, research and art events. We explored possible directions that involved both the official school year as well as summer programs for a general audience. It's an exciting future to be sure. I'm honored and grateful to be able to play a small part in its development.

It's bee-yew-tiful in Durham/Chapel Hill/Carrboro/Hillsborough/Pittsboro. Green, lush, tall trees, pleasant weather. Delish. We both feel a quiet peace in our hearts about moving here. We're meeting many new friends and we're asking God to help us find a good home. One day at a time.

Go Blue.