A New List Every Year

As we head into the home stretch that will complete the year 2010, we are getting lists of various things that were newsworthy or of interest during the year. None are more interesting to me than the lists of those accomplished people who have died during the year, those who for better or worse made their mark on our planet. Sometimes the focus is on individuals who have entertained the rest of us, but others who have died were famous for a single accomplishment, or wrote phrases that are in common usage today, or were politicians who changed the direction of a nation, scientists with brilliant ideas, and so on. What is really fascinating is what people can do with their lives and, like millions of radii on a circle, all the different directions a life can take.