Depression Photo

Today I saw on the online news a very famous photo of a mother holding her children--a photo from the Depression Era--many of us know this photo. It was a great story to read, as far as bringing the photo to life, by one of the children, a daughter, who is now about 75.

It is pretty amazing to read her account of their life back then in the mid 1930s. It is so hard to get a grasp on what that would have been like. My father was a little boy at the time. He was not living a life like that. But I think they were all very aware, as being from that time has always been a part of my dad's core, he has always been very careful with money, and rightly so, he lived through a time in which people were very bad off.

I think what strikes me about the photo, is I always thought this lady was very pretty. She has kind of the classic look, and I can see her as a model for like J Crew or Gap or LL Bean. But that was not her fate, instead she and her children were working the fields, often very hungry.

So I sit here in the pre dawn light and really have no idea what they suffered. It seems everything we learn is always "over there" "someone else" "not my life" and makes it so much more difficult too take it in and really see it. I believe if we had more of a grasp on the past we would not be where we are now. And we will get out of where we are now, but now that I am getting older, I know that somewhere down the line things will get bad again and we will have for the most part forgotten again. Our culture is so based around consuming, and yet it is the foundation of who we are, so without it, who/how would we be? I know for me, consuming is starting to take back stage. It is all so exhausting. A cute 2 bedroom in an inexpensive area is looking better to me all the time. Not thinking and worrying about money is a luxury, while living simple sounds so enticing. We all know "we are not taking it with us."

I am very interested to see what 2009 brings.