Precedent

The economy is the only issue on the minds of most people. From young to old, rich to not so rich, we're all thinking about it. I still can't seem to get my head around how it's all happening, but it is and I'm trying to keep up. For those of us who are young and in our first "real" job, starting life and looking ahead, this is our first big dose of reality on the national scale. Even with 9/11, i was still too young to feel it myself. I saw it, experienced it, but it didn't shake up my world like this could.

It's scary.
Mainly because I don't understand it, though I know I'll be affected by it.

Then today I thought of my 82 year old grandmother. i thought of a generation who grew up in a decade long depression, and lived and fought through the Greatest War the world has ever seen. What did they think about? What was their outlook? How could they have thought things were going to get better?

And I think of my parents, who felt the chill of Cold War. Who waded through the endless nights of Vietnam, oil shortages and rampant inflation.

This is not a pro-USA note trying to say, "We pull through, we always do." I'm not naive. But, there's hope to see that life isn't always about a mortgage, 401K, or job security.

And there's precedent.
In the voice of my Grandmother.
In the eyes of my Father.