A chapter of time

This week is typically the week of greatest reflection during the year. Radio stations play the top songs of the year so that you can get closure for these songs and move on to the next great songs during the next chapter of time, the next year. Television specials show the stars who have died during the year. It also airs reruns of the best talk shows or the most watched episodes of all the series from the last season. Car dealers try to get rid of the last of their 2010 models. Retail stores are trying to clear their inventory of last year's fashions. We get a great big dose of the year we are finishing causing us to reflect on what the year has meant.

Self-reflection is good. It causes us to see some of our behaviors and it either makes us pleased so that we repeat those behaviors or makes us displeased so that we change those behaviors. It helps us cast or recast events that have happened so that we can extract the meaningful portions of those events for recall or allow the less than meaningful portions to die the memory death.

This kind of pruning is good. It builds our characters one year at a time. It also allows us to compare the times from other years with the times we have had in the current year. It allows us to rank the year's experiences against previous years. That exercise highlights one year above others and puts one year above all other years. 2010 was a good year in a number of ways. It will be a springboard year to other years, I am sure. But...

For 2009 I am eternally grateful.