Sunday, December 27, 2009

the naughty noughties



what a decade it's been. we've gone from monica lewinsky to sarah palin. ken starr to osama bin laden. clinton to bush's non-election in 2002 to obama. from the Y2K scare to the triumph of the iPhone. september 11. the asian tsunami. wars in afghanistan and iraq. from the skeptical environmentalist (bjorn lomborg) to an inconvenient truth (al gore). from the matrix to avatar. it's been an eventful decade.

my friend zuzanna wrote not long ago about all of the words that are forever changed by the decade, so i won't repeat that, tho' i did argue in a comment that the word "bush" is forever changed. we do things differently now than we did at the beginning of the decade. we blog. we google. we tweet. we have clever phones and GPS and digital photography.

although i think that forty is the new thirty, i spent the prime years of my life thus far in the noughties. i had a daughter. i accidentally worked for microsoft. i traveled the world. i had a good decade. but i'll admit, i'm ready for the new one to begin. i'm ready to leave behind the excess. the striving. the constant accumulation of more stuff. i think the decade ahead will be a simpler decade. we'll do more for ourselves - growing more of our own food, learning more, remember more of how things were once done. we'll return to a place where we can simply do more things for ourselves (sewing, canning, making cider are on my list). or at least that's what i hope.

i hope a lot of other things too, but only time will tell.

9 comments:

Bee said...

So many new verbs this decade: to blog; to Google; to tweet. Perhaps all of our clever technology will lead to a kind of offsetting -- not just the carbon kind, but the creative kind -- as we search for balance. One daughter got an Ipod Touch for Xmas, while the other got a sewing machine!

Your mention of your daughter made me think of my two, who were both born during the 90s. This has been the decade that I have been in the trenches of raising them, and by the end of this coming decade, they will have both left home! Strange thought.

Sarah Lulu said...

I am in my fifties and ...the new decade also means living simpler to me ...and being more adventurous!

Marilynne said...

I hope you're right about a kinder, gentler decade. I too and just tired of the constant advertising to buy more. Go on a cruise, buy a new car, here's a new gadget. They never stop do they. But I can stop and I intend to.

Anonymous said...

what a decade it has been!

Mary Ellen said...

Definitely good things to hope for, and by our hope may we help bring them into being. May your decade to come be one of discovery and creativity.

Cyndy said...

This photo is amazing! I think I could write a book about it! And you said your photo mojo was lacking. Hmphh!

I really can't imagine what the next decade will bring. Technology will surely define much of it, and perhaps even a tip in the balance of powers. Personally, it will be the decade of teenaged boys for me (another change in the balance of powers?). It should be interesting!

Joanna Jenkins said...

I had a couple of flashback there-- Monica Lewinsky, Ken Starr Y2K..... It all seems like yesterday.

Here's hoping for a kinder, simpler new decade!

Cheers,
xo

Char said...

were the noughties the new eighties? the excess, the crazy?

all i know is that i hope the new year brings better days

spudballoo said...

Y2K...remember how we were so afraid? I had to write an entire contingency plan for the fallout of Y2K. Um.....

It's been a hell of a decade, the 30s for me. Roll on the 20s (non flapper) and my 40s.

xx