Whatnots & Bon Mots

General Contentment

29 years ago, my mom was sleeping and my dad was overly happy. Now, almost three decades later, my dad is sleeping and my mom is happy. This is not a general commentary on their disposition, but rather an announcement that it is my birthday. My mom of course was sleeping from labor and my dad happy that men do not have to go through labor at all.

Last night, I decided to stay up till 12:01am to wish myself a “Happy Birthday,” and I began cleaning. I filled up three Duane Reade bags of papers, nonsense and stuff that I no longer needed to have in my apartment- like the cardboard tray that held the Nintendo Wii controllers. After this massive purge, I began reflecting on the past year. New Years is traditionally the time in which to do so but since my birthday is a week later, and most people procrastinate anyway, I figured it wasn’t so much of a big deal.

First I started counting 2007 successes: good job, great girlfriend, started Columbia University, took exciting trips, enjoyed delicious food, biked over 500 miles during the summer, saw more than a dozen concerts, a half dozen plays and countless museum exhibitions and I was published in several newspapers and blogs and had my photography in Newsday on two occasions.

I also tried to come up with a list of things I might want for my birthday and I couldn’t really think of anything. And then it hit me: I am content. What is there in this world, aside from a new television, that I could possibly want? I don’t “need” anything. Part of the reason why throwing old stuff out is that you distill your stuff down to what you really need, use and want to keep. All the other stuff is superfluous or redundant. And when I took stock of my things, my lifestyle and my goals, I felt satisfied.

Even if Mick and the boys say satisfaction is something hard to personally ascertain, I have to say that I cant see any reason why this year wont be as great or better than the previous one. As I finally closed my eyes, my blackberry vibrated on the nightstand. It was a calendar message that I had put in around March of 2007 which read “Happy Freakin’ Birthday.” I smiled to myself and thought, “Indeed it will be.” Sleep came quickly after that.

posted by UpperWestSideGuy @ 4:33 PM