it’s getting towards the end of the year – which means it’s the time when people begin totting up the happenings of the past 365 days, putting them in win/loss columns, ascribing in one way or another, some fixed value to those days, that tries to slot them into the giant cosmic jigsaw puzzle that is the “larger picture”.

i remember being really excited by the “end of year” lists when i was younger, for some unfathomable reason. the best and worst movies of the year. the best and worst news items. the best books, the worst music albums. i even had a strange fondness for the lists of notable people who’d died that year. i guess part of me liked putting the year into concrete, summary terms – as if such lists made a good year “good” or a bad year “bad”. it made it easy to chalk it up, and move briskly on to a fresh new page with the feeling of having completed an essential task. a mental dusting of the hands – good, that’s another year done. it was only when i got older that making such lists became a lot more difficult. very rarely do life experiences fall neatly into one column or another.

and yet there is still a magnetic attraction to them. a need to compartmentalise, separate the cream, leave behind the chaff (if you’ll pardon the mangled metaphors). i suppose that trying to grasp the totality of such a long and varied period of time is simply too hard.

and so we list.

my best moments of 2007:

• my lunch hour walks
• getting zeke
• going home for a long overdue visit
• having my citizenship application approved
• finishing my 3rd marathon
• reconnecting with old friends i thought i’d lost
• seeing the sox win a second world series

my worst moments of 2007:

• saying goodbye to my grandfather
• having my citizenship application rejected
• hating my job
• hearing about the demise of coney island
• realising dave grohl is no longer my hero

my personal best posts of 2007 (for reasons known only to me):

• here comes the sun. it’s all right.
• as i plant tomatoes on easter sunday
• something inside that you wanna say, say it out loud, it will be okay
• milkshakes and flags
• you can fool yourself, and maybe someone else like me
• and me with my umbrella
• imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
• if the world’s at large, why should i remain?
• brooklyn love story, circa 1992
• beachy head marathon runner #1282, that’s me

the zombies – this will be our year

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