It's Been a Good Year

I shared the following with the Sing for Your Supper crowd last night and felt compelled to share it now, with you:



It is traditional at this time of year to reflect, to take stock. We count and celebrate our achievements. We face our failings and resolve to do better. And so, in that spirit, I offer the following reflection on my life in 2006.

The writing is going well. My blog audience continues to grow and inspired by the daily need to keep them coming back for more, I have begun to do what I intended in the first place…develop a body of work. One manuscript finished, another begun and within the next few days I should hold in my hands a copy of the first edition of the Unbound Press which contains my first published work in 2 decades (not counting Letters to the Editor). I am proud of that. I’m also proud of the fact that none of my work contains fabrications about my drug addiction or reference to how I would have killed my wife if I had killed my wife.

I was involved in an exciting and successful political campaign this year. The Democrats are in control of the legislature. This makes me very happy. It makes me even happier to note that at no time during the campaign did I refer to anyone as “Macaca”, text any underage pages or have to resign my seat because I was facing indictments of fraud, corruption or money laundering.

I was never photographed without my panties.

I never made any racial slurs about anyone, under any circumstances; not even after a drunk driving arrest or from the stage of a comedy club. I’m pretty proud of that.

Upon reflection, I might possibly be more proud of never being photographed without my panties.

I didn’t have a baby in Nambia. I didn’t buy one in Malawi. I also didn’t “have” one and then keep it in seclusion until Annie Leibovitz was available to take her much ballyhooed photo and smack it on the cover of Vanity Fair. I suppose I’m a bit old fashioned, what with my having a child in wedlock and/or not buying it thing. I’m ok with that.

I was (photo shopped) on the cover of Vanity Fair. And of course, I was named Time's “Person of the Year”. That was cool. But all in all it was a quiet year. No court cases, no quicky marriages and even quicker divorces. I avoided scandal, the glare of the papperazzi and I can’t be accused of ever once suggesting that the war in Iraq is going well. Those are all things for which to be thankful.

But mostly, I’m thankful for the blessings of friendship, virtual and actual. Friends are a gift. And I’m happy to say that this year I once again managed to avoid shooting my best friend in the face while duck hunting.

Happy New Year.