The week between Christmas and the New Year makes me feel increasingly fresh and clean.

Out with the golden glitz and Manheim Steamroller CDs.

Out with the droopy, shedding poinsettias and stale crumbling cookies and Hollandaise sauce.

Good riddance to the tree and all its weeping needles, even though I do love its lingering scent.

In with green plants, white dishes, simple green salads and peace and quiet.

The transition week also brings on mediations about the year that was and the year to be. Traditional media does a great job of news recaps — who did what to whom and who died, much of which seems amazingly long ago even though it has been less than a year. Other recaps are more offbeat, including one from the blog, Estately, which recounts what Americans are most interested in, as evidenced by what we Googled in 2015 state by state.

We Tar Heels were most interested in concealed carry permits, Blake-Miranda divorce (I had to Google that one to find out who these folks are —country music stars married to each other who announced in 2015 that they would divorce) and the meaning of the Confederate flag in that order.

Residents of other states were interested in these topics as well, but not everyone. Alabamans’ top Googles were same-sex marriage, Ken Stabler (I did not know him either — a football player who died in 2015), Ben Carson and Laverne Cox (another Google — an actress). Iowans must be serious video consumers as their top Googles were Elizabeth Banks (an actress) and two reality television shows, The Bachelorette and The Bachelor. Michigan residents wanted to know more about transgender and marriage equality, while North Dakotans Googled the NFL draft. Our neighbors in Virginia apparently have an international outlook as they were interested in Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sis, terrorist organizations Islamic State and Boko Haram and the presidents of Turkey, Nigeria and India in that order. And briefly, South Carolinians wanted to know about the “Nae Nae” dance. Texans were interested in lion hunting and Jade Helm, which another Google reveals is a conspiracy theory that the annual U.S. military training exercise is actually a full-scale invasion of Texas. Californians’ top search was for Kim Kardashian but they also wanted to know about Ben Affleck’s nanny and Donald Trump’s hair.

I have no idea what any of this means except that it really must take all kinds.

As 2016 looms, I feel totally safe in predicting we will have elections for everyone from President of the United States to the Cumberland County Commission. Predicting who these people are is much trickier, so I will pass on that one. 

A troubling sign for 2016 and beyond is the recent finding that America’s middle class has shrunk and is now a minority in our nation. In other words, there are more rich and poor people than people in the middle. 

The non-partisan Pew Research Center announced its findings in December and said shrinkage of the middle class has come about in part because of the rise of high earners. In 1971, only 14 percent of Americans qualified as high earners, meaning those bringing in more than twice our nation’s median income. At the other end of the financial spectrum, more Americans are slipping backward. In 1971, about a quarter of us fell into the lowest earning tier, defined as less then two-thirds of the median income. Today, that percentage is 29 and climbing. The growing spread between those at the top and those at the bottom has become more pronounced since the turn of the 21st century, with the Great Recession causing serious and lingering damage for many. The percentage
of upper earns is now 21-percent, meaning households of three who make at least $126,000.

Should we be worried?

It is hard not to be, even though some economists say it’s no big deal.

The American middle class is where most of us believe we are, whether that is true or not, and it is the manifestation of the American Dream of security and better lives for succeeding generations. The American middle class is about optimism and the hope that things will get better, if not for us, then for our children.

It is true that things are better for some of us who are moving up the income chain, but it is also true that some of us are going in the other direction, shrinking the middle from both sides and making common ground as Americans harder to find.

Elected political leaders who make decisions for the rest of us used to speak often about “Middle America” and what was best for most of us. It seems to me that we hear less about those in the middle these days, and if there are fewer middle class folks around to vote, who do we think the decision makers are going to cater to — the rich or the poor?

Wishing you and your family a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016!