This is not an exit...

For those of you who know me, you probably know that I have a borderline disturbing obsession with the writings of Bret Easton Ellis. Some of you may know him as the author of American Psycho and The Rules of Attraction (where - in the movie adaptation - James van der Beek makes out with another dude), but I'm guessing less of you know that his seminal novel was Less Than Zero and was published while he was in college. And Less Than Zero, in my humble opinion, is one of the most striking looks into the ethos of the "Decade of Excess" - the 1980s - as told by it's most tragic characters, the young adults who came of age during that time.

Set in Los Angeles, all of the main characters in the novel are young men and women with more money than they could spend in two lifetimes and absolutely no interest in the world around them. Their nihilistic outlooks are fascinating to me because they beg the question (and I would argue that Bret's dark imagination finds horrifying and likely accurate ways to answer) what happens when you don't care about anything and have the ability to do everything?

Now, it is this question that brings me to my topic for the day. How would my literary hero Bret, view our current decade as it draws to a close in a mere 38 hours? I ask this because, on inspection, there are some striking similarities between the 2000s and the 1980s that go beyond fashion and music (which have cycled back around to skinny ties, baggy sweaters and bubble gum pop) and delve into darker psychological themes that, unless we change our ways, will leave us just like Clay, Blair and Julian.

In this decade we have had two cycles of immense wealth creation (and expansion of the gulf between rich and poor especially as the internet created thousands of Generation X millionaires), followed byin the early 1980s through the Black Monday crash of 1987. We had near daily conflict with other countries (the Cold War and the Iran Hostage Crisis in the '80s and the attacks of 9/11 and subsequent wars with Iraq and Afghanistan in this decade) which engendered a sense in young people that the world may not be such a nice place after all.

It was these things and myriad others that, and this is the most salient point for Mr. Ellis, has once again created a generation of 20 somethings who are completely and totally disillusioned with the world around them.

Now I'm not saying that I believe there are roving packs of disaffected youth going around molesting pre-teen girls and snorting mountains of cocaine as is the case with Ellis's dystopia. I'm merely pointing out that as I look around at people my age, I see a lot of children who had to grow up emotionally very early and did that growing up in a pretty harsh world. And I'm sure every other generation will argue with me that there's nothing new under the sun, but who else got to watch round the clock news coverage of the death of 3,000 of their fellow Americans in one day? Who else got to see firsthand and with such clarity (I point to MTV Cribs and every other voyeuristic show on television these days) the gulf between the haves and the have-nots?

These are all debatable questions that probably don't have any real answers but they do ultimately point to the following broader question that I believe Bret could answer with the same sharp eye he had trained on the 1980s. With all the experiences that this past decade has offered us, have we become completely inured to the world and it's wonder?

Before you try and answer that yourself, think about this: how many times have you read on CNN.com that a woman was beaten or animals were abused and neglected and didn't even bat an eye? How well did you sleep on the night of September 11th? What about September 12th? Is Eric Cartman's completely amoral worldview really so hard for you to relate to? Why do we have a fad where "emo kids" go around pretending to kill themselves because they feel that cutting is the only way to feel anything?

It's a terrible thought to believe that you can't find something to be excited about in this phenomenal age we live in where technology continues to advance at lightning quick pace. Where the citizens of the world are coming around to the notion that we can't mistreat others and not expect repercussions (on both sides of the conflict). Where the business community is learning that social conscience and success are not mutually exclusive ideas.

There are so many reasons to feel alive and connected with the world around us and my hope for all of you, as we enter into this new decade, is that you take the time each day to find just one of those reasons so that, with all deference to you Mr. Ellis, we don't, "disappear here."

Boughs of Holly, Barry, and the Blue Devils

So for my first real addition to this little adventure, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the holidays since we're wrist-deep into them (for reference, I had a fantastic Christmas with lots of good food, good friends and family, and some sweet schwag from Santa Claus).

Now you would think that those would be my lasting memories from this season but the moment that stuck out the most for me was during an exercise class I am taking to get ready for an upcoming vacation to Jamaica where my buddy Brad is getting married (this class is great by the way - it's called Body Pump and, despite how gay the name is, it's a helluva workout - should have my fat behind nearly beach ready in just a few weeks).

It was my first time trying out the class so, as you can imagine, most of my concentration was on figuring out where my next breath was coming from (seriously - I was making my peace with God a few times there) which means I didn't catch much of what the instructor was saying. One little snippet I did catch though was when, during our 40,000th bent over row, she shouted into her microphone, "Let's remember the reason for the season!" Now an allusion to Christ's birth being the reason for celebrating at Christmas may seem like an innocuous enough comment but the interesting part about it was the palatable, uncomfortable silence that fell over the room after she said it. It was like everyone couldn't believe she had actually been so bold as to make a religion-specific comment in public.

Now what blew me away about the whole situation was that, even if everyone involved implied exactly the same socio-politico-religio-and every other "-io" I can't think of right now background (and we did - it was wall to wall tow-headed, blue-eyed yuppies in the class, so I don't fault her for the assumption that we were most likely all Christian in some form or fashion), we have become so conditioned to reject and denounce even the slightest hint of commonality amongst us on the off chance that someone might get offended that a little comment about Jesus' birthday made everyone act like someone just farted in an elevator!

Now this is where I'm going to get political on everyone and discuss our current President, Barack Obama because I feel he is the epitome of this syndrome we all suffer from (and I am ashamed to admit that I fall victim to it as well).

I'm sure given what I've told you about myself it's not a dangerous assumption to think of me as a conservative person, so it may surprise you to know that I actually don't dislike our President. What I dislike is that we now live in a society where, in what should have been the crowning achievement in race relations in this country - the election of an African-American President - we ended up with people taking the opportunity to brand anyone who criticizes him as some sort of racist. Now I am not denying that there are a tremendous amount of backwards thinking people in this world but to have my disagreements with his policies, ideas, etc. smack of racism is just stupid.

Why does Barack Obama have to be a good or bad BLACK President? Can't he just be a good or bad President? Why the qualifier? Is it because people ultimately identify themselves by their indignation at perceived slights? Is it because if they have nothing more to rail against, then people will realize that they really have nothing of any substance to say (Spike Lee and Al Sharpton I'm looking in your direction)? How can we ever hope to really move past the horror of racism if we can't let go of the safety that being upset about racism provides? We have to learn that it's OK to hurt someone's feelings. If we want everyone to be on equal footing then everyone has to be equal fodder for criticism!

Alright, I'll step down from my soapbox now and leave off with a few quick notes about the college basketball season so far. I haven't seen all the top 10 teams play this year but here's what I know based on what I have seen: Texas is the real deal and may not lose a game; Duke is better than a lot of people are giving them credit for (and yes the Kool-Aid does taste terrific thank you very much); Big Ten fans continue to be delusional about the level of talent in their conference (seriously - just give up); and I don't understand why they even play basketball on the West Coast anymore - I haven't seen a strong performance from any Pac-10 team yet and Gonzaga is clearly overrated.

That's all for now folks. Back again when the meds wear off and I have something else to say!

And so it begins...

Welcome everyone to Will's World - a place for the entire internet to hear my brilliant observations on life as we know it or, as is much more likely, a place for me to document the random, incoherent musings that spew from my brain on a daily basis!

Now perhaps telling you a little bit about myself to start things off will give you a flavor of some of the topics that might be covered along the way here.

I'm a 29 year old white boy from Charleston, SC. I'm married to a beautiful woman named Haley whose amazing personality leads me to believe I must be a pretty decent negotiator since I somehow convinced her that my childish ass was a suitable match for her. We don't have any kids but we do have two dogs which are serving as worthy substitutes until that time comes. I come from a pretty small but very loving family that has always been there for me and while I've lost a few folks from that group along the way (I do miss my father, my Gamy and my Granddaddy everyday of my life) we're still pretty much intact.

I've lived a few places in my lifetime: born and raised in Charleston through high school where I got away with a lot more than I probably should have with a great group of guys who remain my closest friends today (read: did an ass-load of partying in a relatively consequence free environment); I left Charleston in 1998 to go to college at Duke University where I skated by with what I like to call a "gentleman's B-" (read: did an ass-load of partying in an environment that did have consequences - a very rude awakening but I survived); towards the end of my college career I stole away to Europe for four months to live in Geneva Switzerland, travel throughout the continent and study international business (read: did an ass-load of partying in several different countries under the guise of "finding myself"); I graduated from Duke in 2002 at which point I moved to New York City where I lived for four and half years working in finance and enjoying everything the City had to offer (read: did an ass-load of working to go with the partying all under the guise of entering the real world); finally I moved back to Charleston in late 2006 to be closer to my family and start working for the family business which is a small private equity firm/family office that is focused in the aviation industry (read: the partying is over and now it's time for Willy to start growing up - BOOOOOO).

I think I've had a pretty interesting life so far (for a white boy from Charleston SC) so I decided to share some of that life with the public at large here. I hope you enjoy!