A decade is the sum of many parts

The 3,650 days that will have brought us to 11:59 on the last day of the decade mark the end of this chapter known as the 00s. Reviewing the path that brought us to the verge of 2010 has allowed us limited accessibility into hindsight. Because 10 years is but a thread of the overall tapestry, framing the culmination of a decade into the less epochal mindset of watching the ball drop is more prevalent and doubtless easier than accepting it as the end of an era. Time flows. Like water in a current racing toward the sea, each event in real time becomes the backdrop for the bigger picture of the future.

The culmination of 2000 quelled Y2K fears, a new day would dawn as data storage programs smoothed over the red tape that entangled the difference between 1900 and 2000. However, trouble with numbers followed the shadow that closed the year as votes in Florida became the mockery for political pundits and the fate of an election was decided outside the voting booth.

Scrutinizing 2000 from the distance of a decade leaves but a hazy outline of its true visage. Perhaps 2000 was relegated to slip into the barren wasteland of distant memories because of the event that sought the wrath of a nation. The year 2000 was the calm before the storm, and while debates will continue to be hashed out over the spaghetti models that the country would have taken if prior events had alternate outcomes, the dice was already cast.

The year 2001 was at best an epochal conundrum for the United States. The entire world stopped to bear witness to the manifestation of hate in action. As the towers fell, national patriotism rose. The reverberations that echoed with each break and each beat pounded out a tribal rhythm for vengeance.

The searing passion that blinded eyes from intelligence gone awry was rationalized with a matched abhorrence that scoured the nation, soaking into the national fiber. The wars that ensued became a direct link to sanctifying the hallowed grounds of national conscience. Traces of purpose became misaligned and deviated until support lost its firm footing.

As foreign policy was reshaped, the economic landscape underwent drastic changes. Enron's house of cards collapsed leaving aftershocks that eerily foretold the shape of things to come. The words "too big to fail" belied the words Chapter 11. A widening hole began to develop in the pockets of American investors and creditors that has yet to be patched. Adding salt to the bleeding banks was the biggest Ponzi scheme in history operated by the nefarious Bernard Madoff.

The Great Recession became the national mourning garb that symbolized the fall from fickle fortune. Contentment and happiness were reevaluated as affluence meant having a job and a steady source of income. The burgeoning attitude of more is more was supplanted by coupon cutting and lifestyle liposuction. Excess became replaced by modesty out of sheer necessity. The measures of wealth and power are now stability. In an exodus from extravagance, America has come full circle to reunite with living within means.

As the decade waned, the political stage underwent changed too. Election mudslinging touted Main Street over Capitol Hill. The results of the 2008 presidential election became the sea change that was biracial Barack Obama. Democrats gained a majority in the House and the Senate, ushering in health care reform and stimulus ad nauseam.

A decade is but a mark in time. The new year may resonate with the chimes of a beginning, but it is merely the echoes of history in continuum.