It's Called Perspective

December 30th, 2008. It's a very significant date for me...at least it is tonight. It's funny how fast time seems to pass as you get older. Responsibility is without a doubt the greatest way to pass the time. When kids and a mortgage replace playing with friends and birthday parties, time seems to ratchet up the speed faster than you can say AARP. 

The most amazing part about this phenomenon is not so much that I feel older or wrestle with my own mortality, but that time passes with such fluidity that I barely notice how quickly I've travelled from year to year. A year ago, my son was attempting to blow out his first candle on his birthday cake, I was completely unhappy with my job, and the thought of living in South Dakota was about as far away from my thoughts as our president was to a decent approval rating. It's that retrospect that makes this an interesting example of my theory. 

2008 was one of the most eventful years of my life. I'm talking about truly life changing events. Yet, as I think back to the days that weren't necessarily a milestone, it gets very fuzzy. I can't recall many things that mark the passing of a year. But here I am. It's December 15th and I'm staring down another year of Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve. 

This revelation, though, brings me back to my original observation. December 30th, 2008. No, it's not an anniversary, or my birthday. The date has no direct meaning to anything that has happened in my past, yet it is important. Its significance is only one of self reflection. It is my life clock. As strange is it may sound, week by week, month by month, this date, and all the others that preceded it, reminds me how time can truly fly. It's just funny, though, how one sell-by-date on a carton of milk can bring perspective to my life. I should relish it, though, because the next time I'm eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes, it might be 2009.