Are you better off?

My birthday is on Saturday, my first wedding anniversary is on Monday. Am I better off than I was a year ago? I would have to say yes. How about you?

I used to do a handwritten list of everything I've accomplished over the last year starting when I was 13. I went over what I wrote on my 14th birthday and my 21st.Those lists seemed to get shorter every year. Were less things happening in my life?

I stopped making the lists every year, after my dad died five years ago. That was like a midpoint in my life.

I found I couldn't remember whether something had happened in this year or the year before, everything kind of blended together in time.

I also would vote for person of the year, the person who most affected me that year. Now that I am married the choice is obvious--it is my wife. Some of those people earlier in my life are long gone--moved on. I once had a dream of calling one of those people, a certain woman, with a tale of my great success. I actually ran into that woman a few weeks ago, and I forgot her name.

I had what I called an "enemy of the year," although I didn't use that word. Many of those people are dead and I'm sure they weren't thinking of me when they died.

So there will be no list this year on my birthday. My only goal is to be better off next year than I was today.