Just Thinking (Perspective) 5/11/2020

It’s a mess out there now.  Hard to discern between what’s a real threat and what is just simple panic and hysteria.  

For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1905 like Al Tietjen, Nancy’s Dad.  On your 9th birthday, World War I starts and ends on your 13th birthday, 22 million people perish in that war.  Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 15th birthday.  50 million people die from it in those two years.  Unfortunately, you had the Spanish Flu and, fortunately, you survived.

Yes, 50 million. 

On your 24th birthday, the Great Depression begins.  Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 28.  The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.  

When you turn 34, World War II starts.  You aren’t even over the hill yet.  And don’t try to catch your breath.  On your 36th birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII.  

Between your 34th and 40^th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.

At 45, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish.  Sometime between 40 and 45 you are diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease caused by the Spanish Flu you had back in 1918.  

At 50 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years.  4 million people perish in that conflict.  

On your 57th birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War.  Life on our planet, as we know it, should have ended.  Great leaders prevented that from happening.  

When you turn 70, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1905.  How do you survive all of that? 

When you were a kid in 1965 and didn’t think your 65-year-old grandparents or in Nancy's case her parents understood how hard school was.  And how mean that kid in your class was.  

Yet they survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art.  Refined as time goes on, and enlightening like you wouldn’t believe.  
Let’s try and keep things in perspective.  

Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this."