2010 has begun and we’re inundated with Top Ten Lists: Movies, Sports, Political Trends, What-Have-You. To be different, I thought about compiling a Top Ten List of the Decade’s Best Top Ten Lists, but then I realized . . .
This isn’t the first year of the decade, it’s the last.
A decade, proper, begins with the numeral 1 at the end, not the numeral 0. You see, our Gregorian Calendar does not figure the Current Era as starting with a Year Zero; it was constructed to start with a 1. And just as the first decade of the first millennium started with 1 and ended with 10, just so the first decade of the third millennium started with 2001 and will end with 2010.
Don’t jump the gun.
“Mere technicality”? Most ignore the true construction of the calendar. In the same way, even though Sunday is listed as the first day of the week, many working people think of Monday as the week’s first day.
But hey: “Mere” shmere. I don’t have a Best of the Decade list for you, and I’ll take what excuse I can find.
Besides, wouldn’t it be good to have another year to come up with something really great for our Top Ten Best of the Decade list?
For instance: Could 2010 be the year citizens themselves took control and corrected course?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.