Retrospective

About five months ago now, an economist spoke in Columbia City about the economic state and how while we might not have a recession, things were bad and going to get worse. He said we shouldn’t panic, we shouldn’t feel obligated to trust the “sky is falling” media reports we would eventually hear.

I wasn’t particularly worried then. I felt a sense of optimism having grown up in some of the best economic times we’ve seen in some time. Sure, within my own family, we experienced some bleak times. For much of junior high and high school, we did not have health insurance in our family. Dad worked for the defense industry and as they faced cuts, he lost his job. As a single income household, with Mom staying home to care for us kids, that was a heavy blow to the household finances. As a kid, I was too aware of how financially strapped we were and it was a weight that rarely left my awareness. I knew how stressed my Mom was attempting to balance the household budget and provide for a family of five. As I got older, though, I became more in control of my personal finances and largely, my coming of age was during a great time in our economy.

A lot has changed, however. In a short period of time today, the gravity of our situation as a community became apparent to me. As I’ve heard others say locally, “People are hurting.”

On Sunday, we drove up to the lake to pick up our lawn chairs enroute to an afternoon event outdoors with extended family. We passed by the home of a neighbor whose house will be foreclosed, we’re told, in a matter of days. Their livelihood was tied to the building trade – and we’ve seen where that has gone. Lately, this has become a fairly common story as foreclosures are happening constantly. But, where do you go when you lose your home? when you don’t have a job to get another one? when your credit is damaged? when you can’t get a job because there aren’t many good jobs to be had? It’s a vicious circle.

Those thoughts were on my mind for a good part of the trip as we continued on to our family reunion at Sylvan Lake in Noble County. Earlier in the week, when discussing the get-together with a cousin in Columbia City, she remarked that because of gas prices, she just couldn’t justify driving from Columbia City and Rome City when she needed to buy food for herself and small child. “I have to make the choice between gas and groceries,” she said. Driving northward for a family reunion, unfortunately, was something she could not afford. Unfortunately, her choice was the wisest decision she could make in the matter.

As we drove along US 33, we passed by Johnson’s Farm. As a child, we went there in the winter to select a fresh Christmas tree and on hot summer days, we would go there to pick berries. I remember eating more berries than I actually picked. I had been looking forward to taking my own children there for the first time this summer to pick berries now that I feel they’re old enough for that sort of activity. Sadly, my hopes were dashed when I read a large, plain, painted sign that read they had closed due to high gas prices and the cost of labor. How disappointing that such a longstanding tradition, a local family business has been forced to shut their doors because of such bleak economic times?

On the way, we passed through Merriam where I saw an elderly man with a heavily lined face, white hair and soiled clothes standing near a puddle with a sign that read, “Will work for food.” I looked at him and my heart ached. I didn’t know the man or his circumstances, but to think of a person standing on the side of a highway in the small village of Merriam, hoping for a meal was too much to see. He could have been anyone’s father or grandfather standing their along the side of the road. It is even sadder that because of the times we live in, how strangers can be dangerous, we didn’t stop. I don’t know if I should feel better that later, when we passed by that spot on the way home, the man wasn’t standing there anymore. It is my hope that someone in a position to help this man was able to do so.

Whenever I see and hear so many related things in a short period of time, such as I did Sunday, I take it as a sign from God. I’m not sure what he’s telling me at this point and I don’t know what I should do. I just have to keep listening and hoping He’ll point me in the right direction. Maybe the answer is that while our economic situation is not likely to improve in the immediate future, while gas is going to continue to get more and more expensive, maybe the best thing we can do is pull together as a community.

My grandmother grew up in Scotland during World War II. They were constantly bombed, rationed and had very, very little. Her mother, Sarah, a single mother of three children, also cared for an ailing sister and several other elderly extended family members in what would amount to a very small apartment. She worked odd jobs – laundering clothes, cleaning and working in a café – and provided the only income for her large household. Despite not having much of anything, she managed to provide meals for her even more impoverished neighbors. I’m told she made the most wonderful soups from nothing more than bones from the butcher shop nearby. The shopkeepers knew of her giving heart and would try to help her in her endeavors when they could, giving her a little bit more than they had to. She welcomed starving soldiers into her home and fed them, saying if her boy were wandering through a far off village, she hoped he would be fed. She gave and she gave, though she had what seemed like nothing.

I believe that what Sarah did could be an example to how we should strive to live during these difficult times. We can’t fix the economy by ourselves, but we can support our neighbors. We can buy our food from local farms and businesses, we can share rides to conserve gas and we can make do with less. We have to work hard to look beyond our own duress to find ways to help our neighbors, as Sarah did. But, I think it is this that will bring us optimism in dark times and make the road ahead that much easier to walk…for we will not walk it alone.