Perspective
When nothing seems to be going right
We all have weeks where it seems like nothing is going right. Everything seems to be going wrong.
Well this is what the last few weeks felt like for me. The New Year is supposed to be new beginnings. Starting fresh and off to a good start. Mine got off to a bumpy start.
Our kids were sick for a few days. Then my wife got sick. Our furnace decided to have a filter issue and go out on the coldest day of the year. This was when I discovered a small leak of a pipe on our water softner. I forgot to take our dog Prince to the groomer. We lost a good long-time client’s business. The low pressure tire light came on my wife’s vehicle. We’ll probably need a new tire once it gets in. I struggled to write my last post after taking the Holidays off from writing. The words just weren’t coming to me. It felt like I forgot how to write.
As I closed my computer in frustration that evening, I recall thinking, what the heck, this is quite the start to the year. At least tomorrow is a new day to start fresh.
The next day I came across this Instagram post that has been making its way around the internet. Somedays what we view as struggles or problems pale in comparison to what others are facing or have faced. All that is going right for us we take for granted. What this post said changed my entire perspective at that moment. Talk about perfect timing. Here is what it says.
For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were 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. As 2022 ends, 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.
Written by: unknown
The Coffee Table ☕
Ted Gioia who writes
had an excellent post about What We Can Learn from Barnes & Noble’s Surprising Turnaround? I’ve gone here for many years and recently wondered what the story was behind the changes and improvements. An informative well written piece.After hearing the unfortunate news of Jeremy Renner’s snowplow accident, it reminded me of one of my favorite movies of his, Wind River. I decided to watch it again. This mystery/thriller was written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, the creator of Yellowstone in 2017. It’s a very compelling and powerful movie. It got a 7.7 on IMDb and a 88%/90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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