Great depression...

Lucy:

You are, actually, quite correct. I listen to public radio rather obsessively, and the economic commentators pretty much agree that, yes, we are looking at something that is very much akin to the Great Depression.

What is keeping us from spiralling that far out of control, for the moment, is the fact that we are now in a global economy, rahter than an isolationist ecomony, and the demand for goods and services from the vast marketplaces of India and China are keeping the engines of commerce moving, while the failsafes (like the FDIC) that FDR put in place to forestall a disaster like what we saw in the 20s are also working.

What we are really looking at is something more like what happened in the 70s, although no one has yet had the temerity to use the word 'recession', the words inflation and stagflation are in play.

Speaking to your other question...we are only as trapped as we allow ourselves to be. This is a moment when all of those conversations about attachment and investment in the ego and the material become so important. It is also a time when setting intentions and creating priorities become important.

Abraham Lincoln said we must "...face the arithmetic. And if we can go forth without nostalgia and sentimentality, we will prevail."

Translation for today: It's just a house -- you lose it, you figure it out and move on. It's just a job -- you lose it, get over yourself and go work at Mickey D's...who cares if you have a PhD?

And don't get all, "That's easy for you to say..." because I have, as an adult with an extensive education, had to, in a moment of personal crisis, work for $12 an hour as a laborer. And I have had to scramble to keep from losing my house. What you do is put aside your expectations and your assumptions, you start where you are, and you go forward with your eye on the prize.

What's most important is faith in ourselves and our ability to be resilient and exploit those options that we _do_ have available to us. Our tools for change are not on the outside -- they are on the inside.

What we need to do to keep our heads up is to do the best we can with the resources we have available to us, and to manage situations as they come up. Getting anxious about our anxiety serves no one.

Blessings,
Michael