Times are difficult, but they aren’t dire

By John C. Bersia

When British Prime Minister Gordon Brown uttered the word “depression” recently, listeners gasped. A similar effect immediately rippled across Europe and around the world. By the time that Brown’s office was suggesting that he had made a mistake, the damage was done. Another potential “crisis of confidence” had emerged, and I would like to know why.

Are we so frightened, confused, frazzled and unsure of ourselves that a mere gaffe threatens to send us into a tailspin? Of course, prominent public officials should be more careful with their words, especially in such a turbulent time. But the rest of us really ought to grab ourselves by the shoulders, take a good tug and have a reality check. For the most unfortunate — those who have lost jobs, homes and more — it certainly feels like a depression. They need and deserve assistance. For the majority, though, the recession is difficult but not dire. All is not lost, unless we scare ourselves to the point of ceasing to think and act rationally, creatively and effectively.

Now, I am not suggesting that we just say no to the recession. That would not work any better than an anti-drug advertising campaign years ago that urged people to walk away from illegal narcotics. It is possible, however, to develop a mindset that allows us to stand up to the unhelpful behavior that the downturn has generated. We can say no to fear. We can say no to defeatism. We can say no to pessimism. And we can say no to inaction.

Before today, the worst economic conditions of my lifetime happened in the early 1980s. Fresh out of college, jobless and discouraged, I asked my father for advice. He sympathetically but firmly informed me that I had no reason to complain. He then went on to suggest that I had never seen the kind of misery and deprivation that he had known. I could feel the “Great Depression speech” coming. Actually, though, he was referring to another period that he considered much worse.

When he was 10 years old, his own father — my paternal grandfather — abruptly died. Lacking an income-producer, the family turned to its children and sent them to work. The job of shepherd fell to my father. So, he set off, a small sack of food in one hand and a staff in the other, accompanying a flock of sheep. The mountainside world was lonely and grim. It worsened when a wolf seized one of his lambs — precisely what he had been charged with preventing. The nightmare continued after sundown, when he retreated to the marginal safety of a rickety, naturally air-conditioned shack, only to have rats raid his meager rations.

Optimism

Still, he persevered, partly because he had no choice, partly because he accepted his responsibility and partly because he gradually began to teach himself to look upon his difficult situation with the kind of optimism that sprouts from the ground up.

He recalled the lessons of the short decade that he had known his own father, when he observed a man of limited means who truly believed that anything was possible. Through the solitude of shepherding, my father learned that much of the inspiration of reaching for such possibilities must come from within. In doing so, he realized the importance of persistence. He also took a hint from one of the few resources that he had in abundance: Alpine water. For him, it became a symbol of hope. He never ceased to marvel at how the water always found its course. And on days when he lacked enough to eat, he could always take another drink and feel a degree of satisfaction.

From all of this, my father forged the philosophy that if you believe that all is possible, refuse to accept defeat and act like water, then you become not only capable but powerful under the most difficult of circumstances. That is the kind of mindset that we must adopt today as we deal with economic woes that will likely push us to even higher levels of unemployment, further home-mortgage disruption and other calamities.

I firmly believe that the economic turmoil will subside.

X John C. Bersia, who won a Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing for the Orlando Sentinel in 2000, is the special assistant to the president for global perspectives at the University of Central Florida. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.