Is This Our Great Depression?

The Great Depression lasted 10 years. A decade. Babies were born and spent their formative years in that struggle. That determined how the Greatest Generation lived the rest of their lives, raised their children, invested, voted, impacted society, and lived their true purposes…or not.  We’ve been living in the COVID-19 pandemic for two years and we’re at our breaking points. I often think of those who lived through the Great Depression, the Spanish flu, Polio, or any of the wars and wonder if they had the same fears about the future that we do. 

Some say we have to adapt to this thing, that it’s never really going to go away and that this is simply our “new normal.” Is it actually possible though, that this one time in history is an anomaly? If the past tells us anything, this too shall pass. 

So then, hope for half of us means making sacrifices and riding it out, knowing this will be behind us one day. That it will be a chapter in the history books. And hope for the other half of us means living life to the fullest right now, not sacrificing a thing because of the very fleeting nature of…everything. In between these two halves is where the deepest schism lies. If COVID doesn’t kill families, their opinions about it will. 

The cautiously hopeful blame the spontaneously hopeful for not showing some restraint so we can end this, while the spontaneously hopeful blame the cautiously hopeful for not treating this illness like any other so that we can end this. Half think science and numbers will dictate the end, while the other thinks the people will get over it and end it. 

Because I don’t have a crystal ball to see the future, I have to make my predictions based on the past. And in the past, science won, the frugal survived, and life went on. There were periods of pause where celebrations were slim and daily life was altered, but they were followed by periods of abundance that made us all the more grateful. 

For those of you in a seemingly-endless winter hibernation, know that spring will come and with it will be flowers, sunshine, and new life. The animals trust that the snow will melt and they’ll be able to find food again. So participate in year-round hygge to weather this very long season, consider everything we still have to be thankful for, and find solidarity with the generations before us that also wondered if they would trapped in their struggles forever.