Leaving Some Bags Behind

She took one look at the headlines of the WSJ, pitched it on the table and announced, “Well, it’s all coming down.” She left the room, my wife, leaving me with her first proclamation of the day.

“What,” I shouted, “the world?” Oftentimes the day would progress in direct proportion to her declarations. Maybe I’d married a clairvoyant. Women have that talent, you know. Their decrees usually find fulfillment…I’d learned slowly (and at times painfully) the truth behind this. I hastily picked up the paper to see if I could detect a clue for today’s prediction.

Then, her voice echoed from the other room, “No, the Christmas decorations. Get in here!” Whew, I thought, relieved that there was no imminent collision with a speeding meteorite, threat of a tsunami or crotch bomber aloft.

But a graph in the WSJ arrested my attention. Maybe it was the red line that looked as if it had free-fallen from the sky, body-slammed, bounced a couple of times and fibrillated. I remembered Hulk Hogan’s similar slam of the 700 pound Andre the Giant in years past. I read more.

The graph was entitled, “Vital Signs,” which brought to mind the sliver of tape from an EKG machine that showed my heart had stopped, but instantly recovered to its normal rhythmic pace. I keep it on my office desk, along with other useless but instructive paraphernalia and some art, to remind me that I’m only one heartbeat away from “the other side.” The diaphanous nude made from screen wire by an artist in the South Georgia swamps is continuously educational.

I studied the Consumer Confidence Index graph intently. There’s a Board for all government meddling, this one called The Confidence Board (its members women, I presume). It depicted national consumer attitudes. Pre-2007, it had fibrillated in a range slightly above 100, whatever that means, but had dropped precipitously to register a 25.3 on the scale in early 2009. It’s shown some life recently by rebounding into the 52 index level, clearly a long way from announcing that the patient is healthy enough to leave the ICU…so the toe tag remains. At least the patient is living, if you believe graphs or EKG’s.

Everything seems to be measured by consumer spending, or bank lending, as if these are the only measures of a nation’s health. The graph shows what any sane person knew (even without a wife!): that 2009 was a sorry excuse for 365 pretty good days. I doubt if many will hang out at the gravesite of 2009 and mourn its passing. I will be the first to kick a clod on the casket, seeing as my career in real estate has also died. I will find it poetic justice to have the last word: “Kiss Off!”

Truthfully, we’ve survived a pretty nasty year. I’m certain we’ll aspire for a more “normal” 2010…hey, to hell with the “New Normal” we hear! Slowly we seem to be emerging from the gloom of the cavern we’ve been holed up in. And what better time to come out than New Year’s Eve, now just hours away?

Which brings me to a thought about the bags I took into my cave in 2007. As I haul ‘em out into the sunlight, I can’t believe I toted such crap around for so long. These bags are far too heavy to tote into 2010, and I intend to lighten them. It can be done, you know…we all have accumulated too much surplus of The American Dream.

Photographs show many Ellis Island immigrants arriving with only the clothes on their backs…they left the old behind. It reminded me when we used to pack the jeep for a weekend in the mountains with every known comfort of home. Later, we found it possible to stuff enough essentials in a 40 pound backpack to survive for weeks.

Along with Forest Gump, we got cracked out on running. We discovered it was possible to run a 20 mile trail segment all but naked, in shorts and a tee, hauling only a small water bottle. Soon 20 miles got easy, so we moved it to 35, then to 50. It’s amazing how little we needed…or how obsessive we became!

All this to suggest that as we emerge from our gloom of 2009, it’s a good time to lighten the load…old memories, grudges, disappointments, failures and other such clutter, and get on with renewing The American Dream. William Least Heat-Moon had it right…to be energized, “live the real jeopardy of circumstance.”

Yes, “it’s all coming down,” the curtain on 2009. As we leap into the future of 2010, let’s leave the useless behind. Buy the ticket, take the ride! And be proud to be an American!

“Get in here!” she screamed. “Yes, dear.” Some things never change!

Happy New Year


Bud Hearn
December 30, 2009