Food for Thought

I found this article on AlterNet:

Today's global financial cloud got you feeling gray? Vermonter Jim Merkel sees a silver lining.

Back in 1989, the Long Island native was a weapons engineer who helped design a cutting-edge computer that could transmit military secrets, survive a nuclear blast and, a decade before the dawn of the BlackBerry, fit in the palm of his hand. Sitting at a hotel bar in Stockholm, Sweden, he was drinking in his accomplishment when a bulletin flashed on television. (Read the rest here.)

In the article I posted yesterday, someone was quoted as saying "There is no silver lining." There is a disaster mindset that we are in -- that the "experts" and the media are urging us to be in. They want us to scream, "The sky is falling" and hurry to demand bail-outs for our favorite banks and corporations. I quite agree with the gentleman in this article that we are being handed a gift, in a way. A chance to quit our unsustainable ways and find a different way to live. A couple of years ago I was saying that perhaps an economic depression would be a good thing in the long run, forcing a return to different values.

I don't mean to sound glib. DCup has a poignant post about her family's economic struggles, and with Mr. Ether in year 2 of unemployment, we are skating on thin ice ourselves. Yet there is something liberating about "simplifying." (I put that into quotation marks, because "simplification" has become a consumer commodity in and of itself. "How can I simplify if I don't subscribe to Real Simple?" she asks, gnawing on her hemp sweater.)

So yesterday I was despondent. Today I have a measure of hope that we will be OK. And you will too.