New Year, Old Age

Happy New Year! It's been a while since I posted, as there has been a lot of stuff going on. For one thing, I finished the first draft of my first novel in December. It's a work of historical fiction set in British India during the Second World War. If I find an editor, then I guess that will be the end of my days of semi-anonymous blogging (semi-anonymous because, as I've said before, those who know me know that I blog here). For another thing, K. is trying to start a new venture. I can't talk about it until it is all up and running, all I can tell you is that it has to do with green energy and home heating and cooling. If you're interested in knowing more, leave me your email address in the comments section and I will direct you to his blog. In any case, looks like my days of gentle anonymity are coming to an end. Oh well.

But, I did start thinking about the big picture when K. started darting around, setting up meetings, teleconferencing, etc. This rushing about brought back memories of the America of 18 years ago, all possibility and action; it was an echo of a former moment. But I notice that these days all K.'s meetings are with people who are at least in their late forties or fifties, their graying hair and creased faces in stark contrast to the revolutionary new product that K. is trying to introduce here in southern Connecticut. And as I looked at them, I wondered: where is the young blood, the twenty- and thirty-somethings, the Young Turks? Are they all in California or have they decamped to yet further reaches of the globe?

Over the last few years, I have often returned from the mad whirl that is life in India and have felt strangely....still. Life in southwestern Connecticut feels, oddly enough, slower than the frantic pace of life in Delhi, Kolkatta, Jaipur. I last visited Paris in 2003 and there too I felt that I was viewing an extremely beautiful, but rather middle-aged grande dame, whose feet ached after 8:00 PM. Turns out that not only were my impressions accurate but they are backed up by statistics. Not only is Connecticut graying and slowing down, but Paris, too, is becoming less tolerant of youthful bonhomie. Oh, mon dieu!

So what will happen to the energy and drive that so epitomized America in the previous century, the dynamism and optimism that restored western Europe to good health and prosperity (not that the British and the French are grateful for that - they hold their noses and accept American money and act as if they are doing the US a great favor by doing so, there's a lesson for wanna-be good Samaritans there)? Will it peter out and grind down to a halt?

I don't think so. The one good thing that the United States still has going for it is its still growing population. Unlike Europe and Japan, with their rather homogenous cultures, immigration has helped keep American population relatively stable and relatively diverse. Despite the cussed arrogance of some of its business leaders, the crass opportunism of some its politicians and the collective madness of some of its people, this is still a country of fundamentally decent people. I say this as an immigrant who is fully aware of the institutional racism and popular prejudices that exist in the land. This is not a pollyanna-ish judgement - I have no intention of casting myself in the role of Voltaire's Candide or playing a real-life female Forrest Gump. All I have to say is that the naivete that Europeans sneer at and parasite nations take advantage of, is not innocence so much as decency.

Of course, there are still hurdles to cross. This country has gorged itself on borrowed money and that addiction has to be overcome. I have several volumes to write on the chief fault that Americans possess en masse - a singular lack of thrift. But now, c'est fini, it's all kaput. There is no more cheap money to finance vacations, houses or cars. Wealth and prosperity has to come the old-fashioned way - by working, earning, saving, saving, saving. It will happen, I think. For when there is no other way out, people will do what needs to be done to recover from the disastrous financial policies of the last thirty-odd years. And as I watch my young children run and play and laugh, I still have hope for this country's future. And as I watch my dynamic husband set up his new venture, I see the flame of American entrepreneurship flicker into life once again....