Where are we now

From the rise of Western Civilization till now we have been on the ascend, but perhaps as a colleague of mine was musing the other day, we are living through the ebb of Western affluence and the rise of the East once again. And wasn’t it strange that we thought it was normal to be accumulating such great wealth and we are thinking that its decline is abnormal. I was telling a neighbor how living in San Francisco during the bubble of the dot.com years made me repulsed about excess and wealth in general. I felt revulsion that kids in their early twenties were finding an easy route to riches; I felt queasy about the abundance that surrounded the cornucopia of San Francisco boutiques and specialty food stores; I yearned for a simpler life.

I remember coming back to New Orleans which was almost like going to Havana because the abundance was minimized, the accumulation of wealth was more moderate, and all around decay and inertia seemed more at home than growth and forward movement. It’s anyone’s guess why that is more comforting than what I saw out west.

But things are changing, we are in a period of the economy where there is going to be a shake out and some industries that we know will not exist any longer, or will radically morph, and of course that means new ones will come up. I told my neighbor that I had hitched my ride to a fast moving train and had gratefully accepted the wealth that trickled down to my little world.

I said I felt like I was moving back into being the undergrowth instead of straddling the engine. She said that is the operative word, growth, the undergrowth is growing. So that is my thought of the day. We are all having to figure out how to live in this new world and what we will be, the times they are a changing, but change isn’t bad. And affluence isn’t good.

As I oft quote here: Louise Nevelson’s “I have made my world and it is a much better one than what was offered to me.” So here, we begin again.

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