Finding Inspiration in Bad Times

The bad news keeps coming.    We are in the midst of what will probably turn out to be the longest and worst recession since the Great Depression.   Many economists are predicting the worst is yet to come.   The United States lost 1.9 million jobs in the final four months of 2008.   Some 524,000 jobs were lost in December alone.   The unemployment rate is now at 7.2% and climbing.   People who still have jobs are worried about losing them.   People who have lost their jobs have little hope of finding new ones.   Those who were planning to retire in the next few years now realize they will be unable to do so.    Those who are already retired have seen their retirement accounts plunge in value in a matter of just a few months. 

We are being bombarded every day with more depressing news.     What we need more than anything else is hope and inspiration.    For me, I find hope and inspiration in my family and in my faith, but I also find it by reading the obituaries in the Atlanta newspaper.   I know it sounds strange that reading about people who have died would give me hope and inspiration.   But the obituary page always helps me put the nation’s current problems in perspective. 

Most young people don’t read the obituaries.    They assume someone will notify them if they need to know about someone who has died.    As I have gotten older, however, I have found I always look at the obituary page before discarding the day’s newspaper.   Even in a city the size of Atlanta, it’s amazing how often I learn about the death of someone with whom I had had contact at some point in the past.   My primary inspiration from the obituaries, however, comes from reading about ordinary people that I did not know. 

Take Shelly Rosenfield, for example.  I didn’t know Mrs. Rosenfeld, who died of a stroke at age 85 in late December.    The article about her death reminded me that the current problems facing our country are minor compared to the problems others have faced and endured.    Mrs. Rosenfeld’s obituary said she was born to a well-to-do family in Lithuania and grew up in a family that prized culture.   She was well educated, spoke six languages, and loved to attend plays and visit art galleries.   According to the obituary, however, her good life ended as a result of the efforts of Nazi Germany to exterminate the Jews.  “For four years during World War II, the family lived in the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania, a concentration camp in Latvia and then Dachau in Germany.  After Allied soldiers liberated the camp, Mrs. Rosenfeld found a home in a bombed-out building in Munich, where other survivors lived.”    There she met her future husband, Joseph Rosenfeld.   Mr. and Mrs. Rosenfeld later had two daughters, both of whom became infected with polio.  Mrs. Rosenfeld’s husband later died of a heart attack at an early age, and thereafter she raised her two daughters alone by working two jobs.   One of Mrs. Rosenfeld’s daughters was quoted in the obituary as saying her mother liked the expression, “Don’t make plans.  When you make plans, God laughs.” 

There are many people like Mrs. Rosenfeld who have experienced hardships that I cannot even imagine.   I find tremendous hope and inspiration in the fact that she and others have been able to endure their hardships and go on to enjoy a relatively peaceful and happy life in the country many of us take for granted and are quick to criticize. 

On almost any given day, I can find an obituary in the Atlanta newspaper about someone who served our country during World War II.   Most of these obituaries refer to ordinary people who lived ordinary lives after fighting to secure our freedom.   Occasionally, I read an article about the death of one of the Tuskegee Airman, a group of black elite fighter pilots who flew for the United States during World War II at a time when the military was segregated.   All of us owe a large debt of gratitude to the Greatest Generation—the generation that bore the burden of World War II.   

An obituary for Margaret Thornton, who died at age 96, noted she had “lived through two major World Wars, the Great Depression, 17 Presidents and many years of hard work.”    The obituary contained no mention of a husband or children, but said Ms. Thornton was an excellent and beloved aunt to numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews, and great great-nieces and nephews. 

Then there are the women who have died after devoting their lives to making a home for their families, raising their children, and loving their grandchildren.   In my view, the responsibility of making a home and raising children is the highest calling any individual can have.   I didn’t know Claudia Burel Rainwater, who died of cancer this week surrounded by her children.    The obituary said Ms. Claudia’s children and grandchildren were the sunshine of her life and her greatest joy.   She told her children she didn’t mind the suffering she endured during her cancer treatments “as long as it gave her even one more day with her babies.” 

In short, it is clear we are in the midst of a very difficult recession and that many people are hurting and facing economic insecurity.   I don’t want to minimize their pain.   At least for me, however, the obituaries remind me that I live in the greatest country on earth and that many people before us have overcome much more difficult problems and challenges than those we are facing today.   The obituaries give me a sense of perspective about today’s problems that I would not otherwise have.    The perspective, in turn, gives me hope for a better tomorrow.