What do we call it, the tens?

Well, the gym is full of people working off extra holiday pounds (it won't last) newspapers have almost stopped running those annoying best/worst of the decade lists and Eric Tillman has gone to court. We must be into 2010.

The decade some have called the naughties has come and gone and generally won't be missed. Even the Queen, in her New Years broadcast, suggested that some decades were best forgotten.

Politically it was a pretty dismal decade, no question.

• The bombing of the Twin Towers in New York changed the world and made everyone just a bit more paranoid.
• Canada veered to the right and elected Stephen Harper and we entered a very new style of Canadian politics.
• We find ourselves mired in a shooting war in Afghanistan even if the government tries to characterize it as a humanitarian mission.
• Western economies took a huge hit gutting many Canadians' retirement savings and pension plans.
• Canada's government continues to build a democratic deficit.

You get the picture.

On a personal level things were quite different.

• We watched our children grow through adolescence, go onto university and to make us proud in so many ways.
• We reconnected with my daughter after too many years of being apart.
• I got to discover the joys of being a grandfather
• We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary
• I managed to retire after working for 47 years.

So I enter this new decade with mixed feelings and a few goals, big and small.

• First, I read back through a year or so of this blog and I was struck by how bitter and cynical it has become. I will try to be a bit more optimistic when I sit down to write.
• I will travel more
  
• Encouraged by our walk across England last year I am more determined than ever to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
• I will be better in keeping in touch with friends.
• I will continue to try to hold our leaders' feet to the fire.
  
• Like everyone else, I will lose some weight.

So there we are. I am not sure if we are at the start of a death spiral or on the verge of beginning to work it all out. We seem incapable as a species to get it right so I guess we'll just continue to muddle through.

So what the hell - damn the torpedoes - bring it on. I am going to enjoy this decade.