In another century, in a town called Whatcom...

Today the stock market probably went down again by at least a gillion points, another billions of jobs were lost and another million Americans will now have to lay aside their dream of buying a jet ski for another year in order to make up for the horrific loss to their 401k. Times are hard.

The thing about having a blog is that you put your semi-private thoughts in a semi-public place where others can read, digest and then spit out your ideas as either brilliant or rubbish. I say this to give myself permission to make a post about the economy, knowing that I did not do well in freshmen Economics and that my ideas should probably be cast aside as rubbish. Now that I've said that, I feel I can post freely allowing whatever responses might come my way.

This blog started out slightly cheeky and for that I apologize. I dislike hearing of job losses and I do believe that times are hard. Now stick with me, because this all is related. This past week I finished one of my favorite books The Living by Annie Dillard. (See previous post for my fascination with Annie Dillard and with this book in particular.) It is such an amazing book! Set in the last half of the 19th century as the Puget Sound is being settled and finally becomes Washington state, The Living has so many different themes that I can't even begin to contain them all in a single blog post. I've read it before and liked it. I liked it in a different way this go around. And I noticed a different theme this go around as well.

Throughout the book the town of Whatcom, north of Seattle, goes through several recessions and several economic booms. Men and women try to buy into real estate at the right time, only to find their wealth gone in a matter of months when a railroad is built to Seattle instead. The new Western state depends on the banks in New York City to release their cash, but the banks are dried up, and no money is to be found. The politicians debate the silver standard vs. the gold standard and try their luck at pressing their view into law in DC, only to find out that gold has been discovered in Idaho, ending their run in politics and ending the idea that silver is a good idea.

As I read it reminded me of the news going on around me. It reminded me that my generation is not the first one to live in the midst of a recession. That my generation is not the first to question if government is making the right decisions. That my generation is not the first to suffer because banks gave out bad loans. That my generation is not the first to discover that life goes on and that the world doesn't stop because we are in the midst of economic change.

Recessions are scary. Recessions mean that people will loss their job. Recessions mean that some people will not be able to find a career to begin with. But people continue to live in the middle of recessions. They eat, they sleep, they work, they have babies, they farm and eat salmon (if you live in Whatcom), they help each other out and some die, but usually not because of the recession, but because they were going to anyway. Living does not wait to take place because we are in a recession. If we wait to live until the recession is gone, we will discover that we missed part of what it means to be aware that we are living.

And with that, I will conclude by tirade on the recession (but not my fascination with Annie Dillard, more is to come fortunately or unfortunately) with a few words from Habakkuk the ultimate recession commentator:

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.

Praise God! Selah...