This current economic crisis makes us nervous. We feel less secure — which we are financially.
Politicians and economists blame everyone but themselves. And silver linings are hard to find.
Perhaps one ounce of good in a pound of bad is that the loss of self-sufficiency draws us closer to one another. It is a result of vulnerability.
Financial insecurity was a part of college life for many of my friends and me. Paychecks from our on-campus jobs came every other Friday.
It was hard to make the meager funds last through two weekends especially if we blew a big chunk on a dinner date at Western Sizzlin’ or Shoney’s on payday. Without a weekend meal plan in the dining hall, creativity and cooperation were required.
My roommate, Joe Purcell, a United Methodist PK, and I made good meals out of 10-cent muffin packages from the discount grocery on occasion. And scraping up $2.06 between us provided a delightful Sunday lunch for two of soup, fruit drink and donut at Dunkin’ Donuts.
Three decades later, the memories are good from having to pull together in such creative ways. Friendships, community, trusting relationships were built.
Classmate Byron Littlefield was a good shade-tree mechanic from Adairsville, Ga. He helped me surgically remove a used windshield wiper motor from a junked car and put it on mine.
The owner of Martin’s Auto graveyard agreed to take my last couple of bucks for the part if we removed it ourselves in the rain.
Byron helped me out and now uses those transferable skills as a physician in his hometown.
Like everyone else, I hope the bleak financial situation makes a speedy recovery. In the meantime, we might look for better ways to lean on each other.
(Photo: Berry College’s Historic Oak Hill, home of founder Martha Berry and setting for the film “Sweet Home Alabama.”)
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
