So where does this leave us? Well for boomers, get ready for your third-ager careers because chances are, many of you will now have them. For Gen Xers, you may seriously want to consider stuffing money under your mattress and/or buying a gun. The truth is we don't know if we've reached the bottom of this abyss or not.

What we do know is that--to use a popular PR term--we have been "leveraged" to the hilt and it’s time to recalibrate. And perhaps that is not such a bad thing. The average American carries about $9,000 in debt, weighs 17 pounds more than “ideal” according to a Gallup poll, and is on an antidepressant of some sort. While we remain a vibrant, diverse and gorgeous nation, there seems to be a price.

On the flip side—hurray, hurray, hurray to the boomers, who ignited a movement that has resulted in our first African American U.S. President, Barack Obama. Sweet progress indeed.

May 2009 bring us onto better shores, where we resolve to unearth what truly matters, and leave the rest behind.