I’ve often wondered why the end of the year brings an onslaught of “Best of…” lists. No, really I haven’t wondered that at all. It’s just a part of New Year’s, right? But now that I’ve written those words, I am wondering: what’s with all the “Best of…” lists that hit us in the last weeks of December? And I’ve come up with several explanations, some cynical, some not.

1. We humans are organizationally-inclined beings. It is in our nature to make order out of chaos. Organizing the slew of facts and fantasies that populate our world is just one way of creating the illusion that we are, actually, in control.
2. It’s an easy way to fill a newspaper or a column or a website or, yes, a blog.
3. It gives the maker of the “Best of” list a soupçon of extra credibility, and, perhaps, an additional minute added to their allotted fifteen of fame.
4. We move so fast these days–and have so much to look at–that it’s easy for that which is first, the January entries in the whatever we’re talking about, to get lost. The “Best of” lists, then, give a second life to that which came oh way back ten or twelve months ago. It’s a way of making sticky those long gone posts.

I cop to all but number 3 above. Far be it from me to need that soupçon of extra credibility. But 1, 2 and 4–yes, indeedy. To varying degrees, more or less. I got the idea from  Kim Tracy Prince of House of Prince. It appealed to me for reasons 1 and 2. But as I started working my way through the MidLifeBloggers archives for 2012, reason 4 became paramount.

Although I’ve titled these as the “Best of MidLifeBloggers in 2012”, they’re really just my favorite posts from each of the twelve months. Only half have been written by me. The other half are the work of some of the many other midlife bloggers who write for us. This site would really be just another blog if it weren’t for all our other writers, and each of their posts are bylined with their name and a link to their blog. If there’s no byline, then t’is I behind the wheel.

I’ve chosen these posts as well because they show the wide range of topics we midlifers think important. The fact is that we simply can’t be reduced to one essential midlife blogger. That, I believe, is some of what accounts for the difficulty marketers have in tapping in to the riches of our cohort. But that is the subject of another post, maybe one that will make the Best of MidLifeBloggers in 2013.

January: Blogging Your Divorce

February: I Was a MidLife Runaway

March: Remembering–And Not

April: Embracing Ourselves at Fifty

May: Anna Quindlen and Me

June: Assisted Living: Can’t Wait! 

July: Thank You, Mark Zuckerberg

August: My Molly Has Died

September: Boomer Career Reinvention: It Ain’t for Sissies

October: Dear Citibank, or Lessons In Customer Service

November: I’m Moving and I Can’t Breathe

December: Aging Out and Owning Up

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