Perspective

Perspective

For a moment, imagine you were born in 1900.

When you are 14, World War I begins and ends on your 18th birthday, with 22 million people killed.

Later in the year, the Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.  Some put estimates closer to 100 million people dead.

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, and global GDP drops 27%.

That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.

When you're 41, the United States is fully committed to WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war, and the Holocaust kills six million.

At 52, the Korean War starts, and five million perish.

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict.

Approaching your 62nd birthday, you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A child in 1985 didn’t think their 85-year-old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents survived everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing thing. With so much happening in 2024, it’s essential to keep things in perspective, knowing that we will get through all of this. In the history of the world, there has never been a storm that lasted forever. This, too, shall pass.

These thoughts have been commonly published across multiple platforms.  

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