THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING AMERICA

Size matters. The size of our bank account, our car, our waistline, and especially our aspirations. At least this seems to be the case in the history of large nations like the United States. In a sense, our culture has been largely shaped by the large spaces within which it has been able to emerge.

Unlike the tight cluster of small nations say in Europe, here we have had more room for more of everything: Larger farms, larger cities, larger cars, larger highways, larger homes. One pregnant example of how sizes matters is the way in which many American families could spread out so that each person has their own room. A sociological factor rarely in play in denser cultures.

In recent decades, though, the pendulum has shifted sharply. We still have large farms and cities, but cars and homes and even dreams have shrunk. The metallic gluttony of our old gas-guzzling cars is today dismissed as conspicuous consumption. The average size of homes has decreased in some regions by more than 200 square feet. Surveys reveal Americans now believe this and later generations may never again reach the same rates of growth and security marked by our post WWII years.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is frequently quoted as warning, "In life there are no second acts." In nations too...? He went on to say, "At 18 our convictions are hills from which we look; at 45 they are caves in which we hide." Any way you look at it, the life of a person and a nation changes with time. Like a roaring river, it shifts beds and carves out unpredictable new tributaries that find their way to entirely different shorelines.

Here in a new century, a good deal of unpredictable national shrinkage is occurring right before our eyes. Jobs, incomes, Gulf seafood supplies, Alaskan oil reserves, the number of teachers in our city schools, the number of course options, even the number of school districts that can still hold classes for full 5-day weeks.

To some -- a healthy national reckoning with reality. To others -- a painful diminishment of the American colossus. I can live with either assessment. What I can't get comfortable with is that some of Mom's old rules of engagement might likewise be shrinking in the face of new realities. Mom always preached and poked: "Sit up straight or you'll ruin your posture!" Now -- I can't believe this! -- now Canadian researchers are telling us that moms may have been wrong, and that "slouching when you're sitting is actually better for your back."

I swear, I may never again believe in anyone's predictions. Including this one...!