My parents were born years before the Great Depression and lived through it as children and as young adults.  They didn’t understand what caused it, but they surely felt the effects.  In addition to the financial devastation, the Dust Bowl hit them particularly hard, as their families on both sides were farmers (one in Iowa, the other in Kansas).  They raised four daughters…  and then 12 years after the last one, I came along.

I was raised in a somewhat stable environment, and the first big events that affected me were the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and a president’s resignation, the 1973 oil crisis and the huge gas lines it caused, the peanut farmer who became president, the Iran hostage crisis, huge interest rates, and then Reagan‘s landslide victory followed by economic recovery.

The rest of the more recent national or world events sorta fade out, as marriage to a wonderful woman, the birth and raising of two great sons, and the prime of my life take center stage.

Now, events are unfolding on the national and world stage that are grabbing my attention again…  and not for good reasons.  We are facing tumultuous times on many fronts.  I’d like to show you the good, the bad, and the ugly — and then what to do about it once you are sufficiently motivated to move off of your couch, out of your lazy boy, or out from behind your computer.