The Great Unwind

Some time ago, when the sky began falling over Wall Street and, soon thereafter, the rest of the world, my husband predicted that this financial crisis and its aftermath would someday be referred to as "The Great Unwind" (as in, the unwinding of the many complicated and leveraged positions that got us into this mess in the first place). I work only indirectly with the financial sector, so I can't be sure that this term isn't currently being used as routinely as Zdenek predicted, but I don't think that it is (rather, "The Great Recession" seems to be the term in vogue).

In any case, the past few days for Zdenek and me have been full of turmoil and excitement, and it seems that he and I are undergoing our own Great Unwind. At long last, we are due to become direct victims of this Great Recession. Living in New York City, we've been in the middle of the action from day one, but aside from it becoming somewhat easier to make a restaurant reservation, we haven't been personally impacted. Until now. One could say that our position in this city is unwinding (and rather quickly indeed, but then again, things never move slowly in New York).

It's somewhat surprising that, in spite of the fact that Zdenek and I are unwinding (or rather, being forcefully unwound), we're relatively nonchalant about it. This is partly attributable to the fact that we know that we'll be okay in the short-term and we'll land on our feet in the long-term, which provides some comfort. But we've also found a daily ritual in our bike rides and runs, and we're spending more time together than we ever have in pursuit of fast times, tired legs, and post-workout beers. Indeed, there seems to be a nationwide trend towards increasing training in the face of decreasing employment (though I wouldn't go so far as to say that we are, or will be, "funemployed").

When the going gets tough, as it has been for some time and as it no doubt will continue to be, we'll continue to tough it out by either lacing up our running shoes or escaping on two wheels. It is our daily unwind, and it feels great.