This economic downturn didn't seem so scary to me last fall. With Barack Obama being elected president and a democratic senator emerging in Alaska, the world's future looked so hopeful. We traveled over the New Year and heard more stories of crisis and how tourism was dropping in Asia. We felt fortunate to be there and have jobs to return to, and we went on our merry way.
Even after we returned to Alaska, I wasn't worried. One of my co-workers expressed her fear about what might happen at our non-profit and I was surprised. Then a week later one departure was announced. Another week and two more layoffs. So this situation was going to get personal. People I knew, admired, liked, people who were part of my daily life, were going to be hurt. I wasn't worried about my own job but the future didn't look so bright.
How do you keep the fear and stress from rising? I can rationalize that I shouldn't worry, but then I talk with that friend who's out of work or hear another story on the radio about somebody losing their home or retirement. Short of tuning out, what is there?
One of the things that has brought me hope has been the chance circumstance that a radio interview program called Speaking of Faith airs about the same time we've been driving back from Talkeetna these past few weekends. The guests are religious folk, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist; authors and poets; scientists and bankers; economists and secular humanists. The discussion eventually gets around to whatever 'faith' is for them. It may be God, natural laws of science, goodness of people.
SoF has a series called Repossessing Virtue where the conversation centers on whether the current economic crisis is also a moral and spiritual crisis. The answers to that question have fascinated me. So much so that I've been visiting the website to listen to more past guests. It almost seems like the show's producers are screening the guests for a combination of optimism and wisdom. Their individual answers vary but there's definitely a common theme -- reexamine what gives your life meaning. For most of us, it's not our bank account or our paycheck. It's our relationship to our family, friends, and community. For many of us, it's also our communion with the natural world (see the Wendell Berry and Anne Frank pieces in the right-hand column.)
If I had named the series, I think it would have been Repossessing Sanity or Repossessing Balance or Repossessing Values.
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