The Authorized Version

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Thankfully, the pandemic restrictions are easing for many of us. Good news, indeed. But now we must look at the economic concerns of what it means for millions of people around the world to be out of work, businesses closed, and supply lines interrupted. As the media never tires of warning us, the possibility of a depression looms.

As in my article a few weeks ago on plagues and pandemics, I again turn to literature for guidance and perspective. I recently met with a book club in another state—over Zoom, of course. I asked their members what they were reading and learned many were reading novels set during the Great Depression. 'It is comforting to see how others have handled things,' one lady said. 'Seeing others endure can help us endure,' another said. 'Seeing others make the most of a terrible situation can help us find courage to face our own challenges,' a gentleman offered.

My mother often quoted the old saying, “Misery loves company.” I’ve never been very comforted by the idea that others were suffering with me; I’m far more of a Pollyanna who wants everyone to be happy. But the value of the concept of community can’t be over-stated. We can all take great comfort from the fact that we are in this together—and we will come through it together. As we always have.

Simply typing “hard times” into an Amazon search will turn up an almost endless list of non-fiction books on that topic, including Studs Terkel’s classic Hard Times. In the fiction department, it would be hard to beat John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer-prize-winning epic The Grapes of Wrath. Both books give graphic pictures of the economic hardship that swept the nation. And examples of individuals and communities banding together to help one another survive.

The newly released edition of Elizabeth, Days of Loss and Hope, book 2 in my Daughters of Courage family saga, portrays just such situations in farming communities in southwestern Idaho. Based on historic events, many from my own family, we see, time and again, people coming together to help each other through dire circumstances.

Elizabeth has one goal in life—to go to college and become a teacher. But it is 1929 in Kuna, Idaho, and the small family farm doesn’t produce enough to send both Elizabeth and her twin brother to college. Just when it seems Elizabeth’s dreams might come true the stock market crashes and the devastating Great Depression engulfs the nation. Overnight Elizabeth’s anxiety about tuition payments is superseded by fear that her parents will lose the farm. Is this one disaster that even Elizabeth’s faith in hard work and God can’t overcome?

I would love to hear from readers about the books you have found helpful in in times of economic or other stress. A simple way we can help each other by sharing and encouraging.

One of my favorite scenes in all of literature is in Thornton Wilder’s play “The Skin of Our Teeth.” The hero emerges from his shelter after a holocaust. His first question is: “My books—did they survive?”

They did—and so will we. Perhaps by the skin of our teeth, perhaps triumphantly—but assuredly together.