A Return to Normalcy…on the Surface

Was 2009 a year of catharsis?  Did we use the last 12 months to regain our bearings?

Are things getting back to normal?

I think they could be, if only on the surface.

To wit:

Iran is back to murdering its own citizens in the street

Best Buy was slammed with throngs of people buying things they probably don’t need today

Charlie Sheen is back to drinking and beating up women, regardless of his status as highest-paid television actor (I have no idea who is watching that show or why)

China is back to pretending they care about the US Dollar

Apple Computer is back to being the Michael Jordan of the NASDAQ

Al Qaeda even managed to raise the funds to send some jerkoff here from Nigeria with a bag of powder and a dream.

These are not empirical data points, to be sure, but are they worth noticing?  Do they signal a return to the way things were?

I only know that tomorrow, the markets will reopen and my boys will be back out there buying, selling, reading, learning, instant messaging, emailing, texting, earning, trading, laughing, eating, shopping, shlepping, complaining and trying to make sense of what is and what we are being told may be in the future.

The mere fact that I am able to calmly make observations like these is a signal that my own sense of normalcy may be returning to me.  Is yours?