Perspective: And You Think We Have it Tough Today?

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by Skip Cohen

The fun of social media is the way it's become the mortar holding the bricks of friendship, awareness and information together. Debbie Madearis shared this on Facebook recently; it was written in 2020 and shared by "Heavy D." I'm not sure if he was the original author or it was somebody else. 

Although it doesn't change the pain and frustration of what we're all dealing with today, it's a reminder of the importance of working together with common goals like peace, health, and happiness. It really puts puts a lot into perspective.

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For a small amount of perspective during these crazy times, imagine you were an American born in 1900. When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.

When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million. At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish.

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this. In the history of the world, there has never been a storm that lasted. This too, shall pass.

Courage does not always roar. 
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’
Mary Anne Radmacher