We Are the Doers

There are doers and there are quitters, Americans are the former.

Even with the crap going on all around me, I live a happy life.

I must admit to having an optimistic bent, even when things were the worst financially or personally, I've never surrendered. I think it is due to something my maternal grandmother taught me at a very early age - that no matter the problem, there is a solution to be found and you can't stop until you find it.

I think that is a generational thing, at least in my case. My maternal grandparents reared six children during the Great Depression and my parents both had the experience of growing up during that period and coming into young adulthood with a world war raging around them.

It goes beyond being tough, they just didn't know how to quit - because if they did, there was no "safety net" for them to fail into. They always measured their progress by their own standards, not those of other people.

My family predecessors wore clothes that were handed down, patched, worn and threadbare but never dirty (unless they were at work). They had little but were very proud and careful with what they did have. With no TV, social media or TikTok, they weren't consumed with the creativity of others, only their own. They took extreme pride in growing crops, repairing equipment and even preparing a meal.

We did things because they needed doing, not because somebody told us they needed to be done.

They took joy in simple things, but were far from simple people. The were voracious readers and consumers of knowledge. They were intense observers of the natural world, learning to read Mother Nature's signs (no minute by minute weather forecasts). My grandfather was both the least formally educated man I have ever known, and also one of the wisest.

This is the gift our children and our grandchildren have never received.

Maybe it is out fault, maybe it is just a function of prosperity (real or imagined), or maybe it is like that old game of "telephone" (with every telling of the message, it changes), but we have a generation of quitters rising to take over the world.

Quitters will always be dominated by doers - and not all doers are on the side of right and good.

I fear we are headed into another crisis of the magnitude of the 20's, 30's and 40's - a worldwide depression topped off by yet another war in Europe.

My only solace is knowing that we will emerge stronger that before. Steel can't be forged without fire. Hopefully there are enough of us old-timers left who can teach our grandchildren about our grandparents.

I know it doesn't sound optimistic, but it is.

America and her people will prevail. We're good and we are the doers.