Fear Itself
October 8, 2008
My grandparents, Herman and Grace Nash, were raising three little boys when the stock market crashed in 1929. They lived through what is now called the Great Depression and went on to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, I remember visiting them at their home in Springfield, Mass. Aside from the usual family photos and knick-knacks spread across the piano and many linen-covered table tops, I also noticed drawers full of used gift wrapping paper and balls of old twine. They rarely ate out and instead grew their own grapes and vegetables, made their own pies and canned much of the food that they ate through the winter.
Along the ceiling in one part of their basement were peanut butter jar lids that had been nailed up so that a glass jar could be screwed into them from below. This allowed someone performing a fix-up task an easy way to see what kind of nail, screw or washer was in that jar. Why make an unnecessary trip to the hardware store when something could be reused or recycled?
As I think about the economic uncertainties and pain that will be afflicting our country and world in the next few years, I have thought often of how my grandparents and their generation survived. Some refer to their children, who fought against fascism in World War II, as “the Greatest Generation.” But there also was a degree of quiet heroism in the everyday struggle to survive in the midst of widespread fear and want in the 1930s.
President Roosevelt’s first inaugural speech in 1933 included the famous line that we had “nothing to fear but fear itself.”
His words were soothing to a public that had spent four years casting about for jobs, shelter and hope. And they set the stage for the drastic overhaul of government, the business sector and the nation itself that was to take place in the next decade.
Today, we are entering an era when the false princes of corporate capitalism and the false promise of conspicuous consumption have been discredited. Throwing money at problems cannot solve the deep malaise that afflicts our society and our world.
Like my Nash grandparents, I will watch to see what our national leaders do to lead us out of this difficult situation. But I also plan to ride out this global economic downturn by doing my part, in the following ways:
* Exercising every day. Fear and stress take a toll even on the healthiest person. Take care of yourself first. Get up a half hour earlier, if necessary, and exercise every day.
* Watching my diet. Better to eat less and eat better quality than to eat junk. Poisoning your body will make you less able to deal with the stresses of daily life.
* Lowering stress. My grandparents read books, enjoyed gardening and even painted their own house. This not only helped to while away the time and save money but also keeping active helped to reduce the anxiety that accompanies stress.
* Making do with less. Yes, wrapping paper can be recycled. So can string. And there is no need to always use a new nail when it is only going to end up in the wall anyway. I’m sure they had a few sleepless nights as they tried to stretch Grandpa’s post office paycheck to pay all of the bills, but cutting back on expensive toys and clothes didn’t create irreparable problems for their family.
* Simplifying life. My grandparents played cards every Saturday with their friends and took time to participate in their community and church. They took family trips that did not cost a lot of money. They built bonds that helped them all endure.
* Reaching out to others. Many were the stories I heard over the years of how neighbors helped each other with food, fuel, baby-sitting and other tangible displays of support. Grandma helped to tutor a neighbor’s child for free, and they reciprocated by sending over baked goods.
* Pursuing sustainability. Although this was not a big buzz word in the 1930s, my grandparents and their neighbors grew their own food, conserved fuel, drove less and did other things to do what we refer to today as “lowering our carbon footprint.”
Instead of seeing this period as a temporary setback to our dreams of personal wealth and individual excess, we can look back to the 1930s and remember that Social Security and other progressive foundations of our current social contract had their beginnings at a time when we as Americans were pulling for each other instead of for ourselves.
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This posting is a keeper.
Again, bravo!, Phil Tajitsu-Nash.
Great going, Phil. Your final words, “pulling for each other instead of for ourselves,” make really fine advice today. We will stand together or we will fall apart.
Peace.
“to know you have enough is to be rich”-Tao Te Ching