Why Americans Hate Recessions

I’ve lived through a number of recessions now. This current one is a little worse because it seems to have effects that may stretch out into the future, and that influences our feelings of Hope for the Future. And that is very bad for Americans. \Americans are very into the Future and all the promise that it implies.

Things may be bad now, but there’s always the future. The future can bring unforeseen ‘opportunities’ that can change our lives radically and beneficially. Hence, the ‘future’ is something that is inherently Americans’ friend. Regardless of what has come before, the future beckons.

Mostly, I think, Americans hate the limitations that recessions bring. Spending must be curtailed, and that always makes Americans antsy. Shopping is a hobby for many in America, and many a middle class family spends their Sunday at the mall picking up a few things to make their week sunny and bright. Recessions slow this activity down. Life looks duller and grayer during recessions—and you’ve pretty much seen the clothes your co-worker or school chum has worn before. How depressing.

Americans also hate recessions because it cuts down on travel, and we are a big country with lots to see, and relatives who have landed at various points around the nation that need to be visited to renew old tribal ties. Recessions make this travel more burdensome, either by making it too expensive, or by slowing it down by car instead of by plane. I’m a travel junkie so, believe me, I take the inconveniences created by the recession very personally and I hold George W. Bush and the Republican Party wholly responsible for my staying home more this summer and spending waaay more hours on the internet looking for good travel deals.

The Recession also changed a lot of educational plans for Americans. Many college-bound kids had to ratchet back to community colleges in order to afford tuition. Many adults who lost jobs had to retrain for other ones, or they had to put off classes they might have taken for personal improvement in order to do more job-oriented training. Americans love to learn new things, from Thai cooking to belly-dancing.

All in all, this recession put the U.S. on hold, and America really hates to feel itself spinning its wheels in place. This is a country with places to go to and things to do. Its entire psyche is wrapped up in forward movement, from its history of wagontraining across mountains, to its invention of an entire auto industry, to its flights to the Moon, to its communication around the planet with the internet. This country is all about movement—and it will not rest easy until the money starts flowing again, and with it, the movement of goods and ideas and energy.
Till then, let’s hope Americans get their act together. So we can all move forward to reap the benefits this nation so generously provides. All of us—together.

Dinner With Dieters - Redux

Okay, I can’t seem to leave this subject alone. Again, I spent a weekend with some friends, and it was very clear that the female side of this couple was constantly making food choices of a dietary nature. There was a concentration and calculation evident that was unnerving to me. Every morsel had to be mentally weighed and evaluated for substantive nutritional value and caloric consequence.

It was both fascinating and horrifying to me, as hostess to this person. I had the feeling that whatever I had chosen to serve these people was wrong—even though I clearly chose foods that were high in nutrition and had made healthy ‘choices’ possible, I felt I hadn’t done enough. Worse, I felt that even serving food at all had sabotaged this person’s efforts.

Woe is me.

It reinforced my sense that we are fast losing our ability to enjoy food. The food that we all centered our family and societal rituals around was now the enemy—not to be trusted, and never to be given into. It really made me feel uncomfortable to be around. I longed for a nice smiling, chubby dinner guest who complimented my efforts effusively.

I wonder how many other people are out there making preparations for dinner guests and weekend guest and are absolutely agonizing over what to serve and how much of it should be available. Too little looks skimpy and cheap—too much looks reckless and even hostile. It becomes a hostess’s nightmare, and there is no winning situation here. If you serve great food, a certain number of your guests will be inclined to turn their nose up at it, even BECAUSE it is so good and tempting. And no one wants to serve bad food, or food that doesn’t please both visually and gastronomically.

So I will entertain my guests as usual, and I’ll watch them turn away. I’ll watch the fevered calculation and the fear and self-loathing they experience when placing something delicious on their plate. I’ll watch their doubt and their regret.
These people sure have taken the pleasure out of entertaining. Much of life is no fun anymore.