Agnes Scott College parking lot Decatur, GA (pic courtesy of DM)

I realize it’s a bit late to still be doing lots of 2010 reflection, but I just had this idea this morning so cut me some slack.

Anyway, I thought this new year might be a good time for Decaturites spend a couple moments reflecting on some of the high-points of the previous year. To share favorite movies, music, books, etc… with their fellow residents and perhaps give each other a few ideas for their 2011 Netflix Queue or iTunes shopping cart.

So, let’s start with your favorite movie of 2010 and then, if there’s a significant amount of interest, we can move onto other areas.  And as far as I’m concerned the movie doesn’t have to have been released in 2010.  It should just be the best movie you saw in the past year.

Sound good?  (He said optimistically.)

Remember how much of a fuss we made about $3/gallon gasoline?  Man were we irritated.

Well, guess what.  Gas is $3 again.  Where’s the panic!?   Where are the angry op-eds?  The Twitter #gasgriping?  The Facebook status updates of gas price-induced fury?

Ya know, human adaptation sure makes us look like a bunch of over-reactionary liars sometimes.

But luckily, I see a return of media (social or non-social) angst just over the horizon.  The AP kicked off the New Year announcing that gas price experts are predicting the price of gasoline will get up in the $4/gallon range in up to 15 states by Memorial Day, thanks to a recovering U.S. economy and China’s increasing need for oil.  (No need to worry here in Georgia in the short-term.  That arbitrary new .00-mark will only be reached in states with the most aggressive gas taxes.)

And while you could argue that ho-hum $3/gallon fuel HAS had an impact on the nation’s psyche – propelling the population back to the city and influencing the % of teens with driver’s licenses – these effects surely didn’t live up to all the hype.

In that regard, will $4 gas prove to be more of the same?  Promises and predictions of drastic changes to our daily lives followed in short-order by slight, actual changes by the population-at-large.  Or will it amount to something else?  Will majorities once adverse to public transit suddenly stick a MARTA Breeze Card in their purse or wallet?  Will ‘burban families start ponying up for electric vehicles?  Will “stay-cations” become so common that we’ll never have to hear or read that ridiculous word again?

I don’t have the answer, but if I were a betting man I’d probably putting my money on the former.