There may be no sadder word in the English language than the word paracme. I’d never heard of it until an NPR story a couple of years ago, so don’t feel bad if you don’t know it.According to the Oxford English Dictionary, paracme means, “A point or period at which the prime or highest vigour is past.”Essentially, paracme means you’re a has-been. The pinnacle, the zenith, the climax of your life happens. Everything after that is paracme.It’s not a pleasant thing to think about. The pinnacle of our lives probably doesn’t last very long. If we’re lucky it’s not just a moment, but rather days, or months, maybe even years. Whatever and whenever it is, it’s likely that paracme lasts much longer.Our ChicagoNow blogging community challenge this week is to write about our “Favorite Year.”I’m lucky enough that it’s easy to choose some good years. I’ve got four kids, a wonderful wife, great friends, and I had the best childhood ever. My entire life has been filled with good years. Almost embarrassingly so.But if I have to choose my favorite year, then I’m choosing this year.No, not 2014 necessarily, but this year. Whatever year it is when the question is asked. If you pose the question to me right now, then I’ll say 2014 is my favorite year. If you ask me 13 weeks from today, on New Year’s Day, I’ll say 2015 is my favorite year.To answer any other way would be a step toward admitting that I might just be in paracme, and for the love of God, I refuse to think about that.Another way to think about the question of my favorite year would be to look to the future. Maybe next year should be my favorite year. After all, if the story of humankind is that of continual progress, then next year should be better than this year, right?However, if we always look forward to next year, then don’t we risk not appreciating this year? And wouldn’t it be horrendous if this year ended up being a hundred times better than next year, but we missed out because we were too busy thinking about next year?No, if we want to think about our favorite year, we’d do best to concentrate on the year we’re in.I mentioned my four kids. Ever since I became a father I’ve told myself to appreciate that particular day. Even when they were babies and they were crabby because they were teething, or they puked for three days straight, or when they don’t listen now that they’re older, I remind myself that they’ll never be that age again. Savor it. Appreciate it.I’m a sentimental guy and I spend plenty of time thinking about fun times that I’ve had in the past. My memory works in such a way that I can think of a particular event and often instantly bring myself back to it.But if I believed that one of those memories was the zenith of my life then it’d be rather difficult to look back so fondly, I think. It might be easy to become bitter at the thought that things will never be as good as they were then.Instead, it’s better to look at the past, appreciate it, remember it, and then think of things that are happening right at that moment for which you’ll develop fondness five or ten or fifteen years later. Tomorrow makes today cool, but by the time you realize today is cool it’s already over.So I’ll look forward to next year. “Wait ‘til next year” isn’t a popular slogan for nothing. And I’ll still think about last year. “Those were the days,” Edith and Archie Bunker sang.But if you want to know my favorite year, then I’m happy to say that we’re living in it. There’s only one 2014, and I’m not going to let it slip away. Whether I’m playing outside with my kids, or reading a book, or writing a blog, or out on a date with my wife, or stuck at work, or cutting the grass, or hiking a two-hundred-foot sand dune, today’s the day.It’s the only one we’ve got.Like my Facebook page, Brett Baker Writes.Want an e-mail every time I write something new? Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. I'm not going to send you a bunch of junk, and you can ditch me any time you want.