Behind the Curve

I remember people saying how great the 80's were. They called it the decade of decadence. Whenever we see footage from the era, it looks like everyone is having a great time. But I actually remember quite the opposite. I remember suffering through what seemed to me as an era of ignorance. Everything seemed so shallow--the music, the culture, the politics. It was depressing.

Then came the 1990's--flannel shirts, long and greasy hair, angry kids...The world seemed to be a much more sobering place. But I felt much better! I loved the 1990's--even though I spent most of the decade raising kids and probably missed a lot, it just seemed a better time... more honest and less urgent.

As for the last 8 years, pay your money and take your choice. I am sure that there are some who feel that things have been great; while others feel just the opposite. I don't know what any of this means except perhaps to support the old adage, "You can please some of the people some of the time but you can't please all of the people all of the time..."

Now that the onslaught of campaigning is over and we know that some kind of change is on the horizon, I wonder how people are feeling. The day after the election, it was clear that there was a lot of excitement in the air. But now that the news has shifted back to things like global recession and wide-spread unemployment, it seems that the enthusiasm is a bit more tempered.

My sense is that we probably have no idea what is around the corner. It may be that everything we have been worrying about has now come and gone and we are just waiting for the smoke to clear away. Or it may be that what we have been witnessing is only the tip of a much larger iceberg--although I certainly hope this is not the case.

The intellectual in me wants to hold back, wait and see...but there is also something that tells me that life is too short to be waiting until we know its safe to go outside. Besides, I have no sense of timing anyway. I am usually depressed at parties and my best years have come when everyone else was whining.