Strongly Worded

Some New Year's Navel Gazing

In reflecting upon all the changes of the last decade, I keep trying to tease out which ones relate to personal, as opposed to global, tumult. I'm using wireless Internet to crank out a blog entry, an activity I couldn't have conceived of ten years ago. But just as striking is the fact that I'm sitting inches away from the love of my life. He was, at best, a hazy construct in 2000, as much of a stranger to me as that nascent technology.

For me, the '00s were the first decade that I can solidly remember in its entirety, the first that corresponds with a single phase of life. I guess you could argue that, for me, the 80s comprised childhood and the 90s adolescence, but each phase included a million sub-phases and twists and turns.

Whereas I spent the '00s living within a single neighborhood. Professionally, I did variations of the same thing. With few exceptions, I met and bonded with people who remain part of my life, despite radical changes in theirs: the procurement of houses, spouses, and children. As the world warmed and warred, I engaged in a little bit of activism, but I also spent a lot of time looking inward.

I learned to accept and manage myself, and I accumulated a lot of stuff. In 2000, everything I owned fit in a station wagon. Now my possessions barely fit in a two-bedroom apartment. Some of them weren't even invented in 2000. Back then, my roommate bemoaned the fact that she was becoming Every Twentysomething, by acquiring black chunky shoes and a cell phone. Now the trappings of Everyness include the iPod, Whole Foods reusable shopping bags, and the North Face Metropolis coat, and I have them all.

In the '00s, I became an adult, and let go of a lot of my outrage and idealism. Sometimes I shudder at how complacent I've become, and how I let ten years go by without making a sizable positive impact on the world. Then I take comfort in the idea that I've still got time for that (God willing). The '10s, and the '20s and the '30s and the '40s seem full of opportunity.

I hope we can make them great.

Posted by Dori at 4:03 PM