by Julia Baird
February 22, 2010
http://www.newsweek.com/id/233414
I read this article on a comparison of the Great Depression to the recession we are now in. It really made me think about my values and how they have changed in past two years. When the housing market burst I lost my job in a civil engineering firm. I look back and see how selfish I was during my three years at that job. I felt that I earned my money and I should not feel any pull towards giving it away to ANYBODY. This includes family and friends. Now I’m in a job that pays just a little under half of what I was making before and I really see the benefit to lending a hand to people in need. Don’t get me wrong this is not a pity me blog. I greatly appreciate the help family and friends have given to me and the article highlighted that.
Julia Baird sites peoples memories of the Great Depression and they all say how their morals a where sharpened though living in this hard time. Ray Price said, “Everybody helped everybody. No doors were locked. No food was refused to anybody.” Gay Talese said, “Take nothing for granted, to be frugal and above all to be self-sufficient.” I liked the optimism that Julia used when discussing the possibilities of America’s future with a return to, “respect, integrity, caution, decency, fairness, hard work, loyalty, and concern for others.” I feel my moral compass has shifted in the recent past and I really hope that the rest of America’s has also.
On an educational note. It could be a powerful tool to compare and contrast a students life inside and outside the family with how they feel it would have been during the Great Depression. What the United States is experiencing now, economically, is a great tool for the study of the Great Depression and other hard times in American history.
Jason: I really appreciate your honesty and self-awareness here. It is not easy to put yourself out there like this. Thank you for sharing with us.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your thoughts on this. Most of us don't take the time for this kind of personal reflection. I know it sounds cliche, but I have learned more from situations that I've hated than from the ones I've loved. Hard times are a strange sort of gift, in a sense. They give us the chance to become better people. Thanks for your thoughts.
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