BEGIN

I had really hoped that 2010 was the beginning of a new decade because I am sick and tired of this one. I had been gearing up to jumpstart the year and even talked myself into ceremoniously picking a word that would symbolize the decade ahead: BEGIN. (Thanks, Nat.)

It was cold on the walk the evening RMan keyed me in on the bad news that 2010 was actually still part of the decade we're in. You have no idea how seriously disappointed I was! All these thoughts are stuck here a whole year too early? There's nothing else to do but execute Plan A immediately and that involves my jazzy new word.

I'll grant you, 2009 was just about the hardest year ever. It changed the course of life. Terrible things went on everywhere and even my little part of the world was rocked off its axis by a job loss and the unstoppable fallout of insomnia and worry for my friends and family in the same boat. I was saddened by an indestructible friendship that took a direct hit and broken-hearted when the most beautiful light in the world was snuffed out at the tender age of eight. Lord, that was hard.

The 'aught' decade auspiciously also currently includes America's catastrophic fiscal erosion and a dwindling sense of confidence that we will be able to pull ourselves through. And there is this little matter of America's isolationary social erosion thanks to ipods and twitter and facebook and iphones - I mean, when was the last time you got a hand written thank you card or a forwarded joke with an actual personal message? And lastly, our sense of safety dissolved with terrorism grandstanding on September 11th.

We all sense America is losing its focus and its citizens are different because of it. Worker bees try to survive in a corporate America that has nothing to do anymore with the notions of loyalty, longevity and fair play. Sometime in the decade, the one without end, the world-changing 50-something boomers became old.

I wish I had listened better to those stories my mother and dad told of hard times and what it was like in the 1930s, what they endured and how. There will be clues there, ones we need. Our parents saw their parents ride out the Great Depression and survive it, and because of that they taught us and absolutely believed that anything is possible if you got an education, worked hard, were nice, took nothing for granted and wasted nothing. And I believe them. I do. I also know this is our moment to lead by example, when our families are looking to us to see what we do. Will we find the humility to do whatever it takes and persevere?

Life is definitely not going according to plan, but so what? Our grandparents kept the faith under infinitely worse circumstances. So in the last sucky year of a really bad decade, it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to it. Believe in ourselves and Begin again. Worrying whether we succeed or not will only get in the way.