To give a little perspective during these difficult times, imagine you were born in America in 1900. When you turned 14, World War I started, and it ended on your 18th birthday. By then, 22 million people had died. Later that year, the Spanish Flu pandemic spread across the world and lasted until you were 20. In just those two years, 50 million people died. Yes, 50 million.
When you were 29, the Great Depression began. Unemployment reached 25%, and the global economy shrank by 27%. That lasted until you were 33. The country almost collapsed along with the world economy. By the time you turned 39, World War II began. You weren’t even considered old yet.
At 41, the United States fully joined World War II. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people died in the war, and six million were killed in the Holocaust. At 52, the Korean War started, and another five million people died.
When you turned 64, the Vietnam War began and lasted for many years, claiming four million lives. Approaching your 62nd birthday, the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, bringing the world dangerously close to nuclear war. Great leaders prevented that disaster.
By the time you were 75, the Vietnam War finally ended. Think about everyone born in 1900—how did they survive all of that? A kid in 1985 may not have thought their 85-year-old grandparent understood how hard school was, yet those grandparents—and now great-grandparents—survived all of it.
Perspective is a powerful thing. Let’s try to keep things in perspective. Be smart, help each other, and we will get through this. In the history of the world, no storm has lasted forever. This too shall pass.