THE DEPRESSION AND THE DEPRESSED

Years ago during discussions of the budget our retired Treasurer used to remind those of us who are slightly younger than he, that despite the rosy picture in income one must always be cautious. And in case we had any doubts about the fact that good can turn to bad he always reminded us that he had seen it happen up close and personal. He had lived through, he had experienced, the Depression.

           

Experience is a wonderful teacher. Sometimes, it seems, it is the only teacher. We tell our children about the mistakes we made, warn them not to do as we did, try to make sure they don't get hurt as we did. But all too often our warnings fall on deaf ears. No matter what our age, we still want to believe that we are immune from making the same mistakes as our elders especially when everything seems so rosy.

           

Why we learn more from the bad than from the good is a question for the psychologists. But we do. It seems that it is only when we lose what we have – and what we probably have not appreciated while we had it – that we suddenly realize how blessed we were.

           

My mother's generation knew firsthand what it meant to be without, what it meant to lose what you had taken for granted for so long. The learned what it meant to struggle, sometimes struggle to survive just for today. And they did. They came through that struggle stronger and better and certainly more appreciative of what they had. They were always a little gun shy, never counting their cards or even their blessings, simply thankful for what they had each day knowing that tomorrow it might all change.

           

And if it did change tomorrow, if it did go from good to bad, they carried on. They survived. They did not suddenly get depressed. After all, they survived The Great Depression. It couldn’t get any worse.

           

It would be easy for me to say that my children don't understand all this. But I would also be less than honest to say that I probably don't either. The generations post-Depression probably have more cases of depression, more depressed people, than the people of the Depression could ever imagine. Yes, many people of my parents' generation were overcome by the tragedy that occurred. But most survived and were better for it.

           

No one of us wants bad things to happen to us. No one of us wants to be without. We want all our wants, not just our needs, to be filled. But the more they are, the worse off we are when they are not. Depression sets in.

           

Maybe that's why Lent is such a good idea. Maybe we really need a time of self-denial: self-inflicted denial. Lent is a time to train ourselves to be without, to live with less, to want and need less, just in case. The people of the Depression had a very long Lent, one which they would never have chosen, but one that made them the better for it. My treasurer long ago tried to remind us that we may need to live less well even if we can afford to live better, if only to learn how – and maybe save ourselves a lot of pain  and depression later.