Perspective...Indeed!

An excellent email arrived yesterday...no idea who the author is, but it's definitely worth a read:

"PERSPECTIVE

Interesting times. Hard to discern between what’s a real threat and what is just simple panic and hysteria. For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1899.

On your 15th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 19th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 21st birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

On your 30th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 34. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 40, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. And don’t try to catch your breath. On your 42nd birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 40th and 46th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.

Smallpox was epidemic until you were in your 40’s, as it killed 300 million people during your lifetime.

At 51, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. From your birth, until you are 56 you dealt with the fear of Polio epidemics each summer. You experience friends and family contracting polio and being paralyzed and/or die.

At 56 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of nuclear annihilation. 

 On

your 63rd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, almost ended. When you turn 76, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1899. How did they endure all of that? Yet they survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art, refined and enlightening as time goes on.

Let’s try and keep things in ​perspective."