Perspective

[zoomzoom]

Perspective
“Imagine you were born in 1900. On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million. On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World 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. And don’t try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war. At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, should have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening. When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? When you were a kid in 1985 and didn’t think your 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. And how mean that kid in your class was. Yet they survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art, refined as time goes on, and enlightening like you wouldn’t believe. Let’s try and keep things in perspective."
——
Author unknown

 

[Amish Heart]

My grandparents were born in 1900. So I think about them a lot and what they had gone through. Unfortunately they died when I was a little girl, before 1970. I ask mom about what they told her about all of this, but she doesn't remember. She will be 88 this year. They were married in Kansas, at a farm near our current farm. My mom was born in that farmhouse. Mom says she doesn't remember doing without, but they had all their own animals, grandpa was a wheat farmer, they had plenty. I know the military base was very, very hard hit in Kansas during the Spanish flu. My cousin remembers some passed to her mom from her grandparents. She remembers her mom saying she hid her favorite horse back in the trees during the depression when the bankers came to take away all their assets.

 

[Supervisor42]

. She remembers her mom saying she hid her favorite horse back in the trees during the depression when the bankers came to take away all their assets.

Yes, and today to hear how many snowflakes are under psychiatric care because virtual-reality headsets are all sold out in stores.

You can't help but laugh and be accused of being 'insensitive'.
What I wouldn't give to see their mom say: "You have to put down that cow" and thrust a double-bit axe into their hands.
Perspective.
Reality.

Swing hard on that first blow, you don't want to have to do 2.

 

[Amish Heart]

True, Supervisor. But an axe? I wouldn't use an axe.

 

[Supervisor42]

True, Supervisor. But an axe? I wouldn't use an axe.

We had a bad year with a lot of cows getting sick and getting down.
We had to stop wasting ammo dispatching them that we could use to harvest edible food.
Perspective.
Not fun. Especially if you're a kid.
OMG! Gaming consoles are in short supply! Whatever will we do!

 

[Amish Heart]

The twins on line High School health teacher gave them an assignment last week...basically how much sleep are you getting, and what time do you go to bed, how much time watching tv and using your smart phone and playing video games. They were supposed to record all this daily. The twins are on a schedule. They filled it out all the same every day. Most of their friends are playing games to the wee hours of the morning, then falling asleep during on line class. Not that they're missing anything. But what a waste of life!
Saving ammo...a failing old cow at a cousin's farm. The husband used the tractor scoop to take it way out to the fields. She would be coyote food, as she wasn't going to last very long. Last summer. They just filled their freezers with some good beef offered to them by a neighbor with a lame young one. Lucky. Neighbor didn't want to be bothered.

 

[Morgan101]

Great post, zoomzoom. My grandparents would have been from that generation. You never really think about all of the hardships they had to endure in their lifetime.

Good spot for the tagline: "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

 

[Meerkat]

Zoom thanks for the interesting short history story.
All in your quoted story plus the little known or discusses story of the biggest massacre of Christians in world history.
How the white man has survived himself and others for past couple 100 years is amazing.We seem to love war and killing each other.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/100-years-of-communismand-100-million-dead-1510011810100 Years of Communism—and 100 Million Dead
The Bolshevik plague that began in Russia was the greatest catastrophe in human history.