Thinking Outside the Cube

It's time to get creative.

Did you see that new Allstate Insurance commercial? They ask, "Is it the Great Recession? Or the recession that made us great."

Think about it.

Pole dancing as a fitness class. Ice cream sandwiches as architecture (check out the website!).

In the midst of a money-mongering nation driven by CEOs and corporations, the individual is picking us up and out of the slump.

Maybe it's my twenty-something bubble. Maybe it's the fact that my sister has, once again, been rewarded by doing the bare minimum and been granted carte blanche to rampage until she gets her way. But Uncle Sam's just been giving hands outs - like those stupid participation trophies we all got for rec soccer, and I'm sick of it. From Wal-Mart to Apple...everyyyyone needing to have everyyyything...we've just been trying to build an economy on bed of socialistic quicksand.

I can't help but praise Twitter and Facebook for at least trying to remind us about creativity and innovation. For stressing the importance of networking and maintaining relationships. [caveat: face-to-face interaction and social graces are invaluable. don't replace personal, human exchanges with technology]. We've been lost in a cookie cutter society. I should know. I practically live on Wysteria Lane. But the twenty-somethings, aka 'Boomerang Generation', has been plugging away. We fashion our Facebook profiles to be totally unique to our personality, we find our own voices by writing a pointless blog that nobody reads, through random YouTube videos about Long Island moms, we decorate our cubes with Confederate/Union Army figurines (HookerJones...). I've even worn a full-body banana costume for a presentation in an international economic policy course.

Unknowingly, we've been preparing for the facade of the American Dream to crumble. Or at least to crack. Maybe the "red white and blue" has become more of a "red white and screw you". This whole "Great Recession" thing. It's what you make of it. It's sink or swim.

So props to C-dawg for avidly participating in the economy by taking a pole dancing class (and for those of you who were wondering, C-dawg confirms that it actually is a lot harder than you think. and she only performs for private parties.).

Try thinking outside your box. I mean...cube.

[photo by Stephanie Diani for The New York Times]