The New Year that was about to happen has now arrived. Worldwide communication fills the air with dire predictions, warnings and laments. It is hard to remember a world in which you had to wait for the nightly news to find out what was happening. We are bombarded with a continual stream of “news.” The more dramatic items draw the most attention. News reporters and news creators lean toward high drama in every instance to gain ears, eyes and most important revenue. Because of this the old adage to take things “with a grain of salt” is as useful now as it ever was.
As an avid reader of accounts of years gone by with a particular emphasis on pioneers and immigrants (two groups that overlap and have much in common) there is a lot to ponder when comparing then to now. The struggles earlier generations had (in the United States) were generally more physical than the ones we wrestle with today. Now when some of us talk about how perilous and awful things are, often it is from a position of physical comfort and relative security.
There is a chance to find a new perspective by looking at the challenges our ancestors faced. Many of them experienced real hunger with dangerous work and domestic conditions. The safety nets we take for granted were not there. If you were a mother bearing as many children as God gave you, it was “natural” to lose some of them before they reached adulthood. If you were crossing the country in a covered wagon there were lots of chances to have an accident that could suddenly kill or debilitate a member of the family. There was no option other than moving on with your life. In no way was this “fair” but based on their experience an expectation that life would be fair wasn’t strong.
When we talk about how hard the current times are it usually isn’t a matter of life and death. Extreme inconvenience and living with policies we don’t support are unhappy realities, but far from what our ancestors endured. Having this perspective seems important as we move into a tumultuous 2025.
Contemplate some of these differences. A city tenement dweller often had to haul every drop of water needed in the household for cooking, bathing and laundry up three or four flights of stairs and climb up and down those same stairs to use the outhouse. Temperatures in the summer forced people to sleep on the tenement roof as rooms inside equipped with coal burning cooking stoves were beyond stifling all summer long. A local example of struggle would be living in Fort Bragg before cars and paved roads where the wet winters meant walking anywhere you wanted or needed to go as wagon wheels sank hopelessly in the mud.
If we could time travel peeking in on the “lifestyles” of those who went before we would probably be dumbfounded by the hardships they endured just getting through a normal day of living. I can remember my great-grandmother who came from a large family in Wales admonishing me not to peel the carrots because it wasted too much good food.
So as we who are privileged enough to be comfortable go forward into 2025 maybe we can think about how it used to be and be grateful for what we do have. Some may say that being comfortable isn’t all that important, but it is probably someone who is comfortable that would believe that. A baseline of comfort and normality in our everyday lives gives us an important foundation.
Today there are millions still living in conditions just as hard as in earlier days — or worse. The reflections in this article are based around a group of people who are lucky. I have utmost respect for those whose lives are still strongly limited by their physical circumstances. All the more reason to value our good fortune, if we are fortunate. So Happy New Year and may 2025 be a year in which we all continually strive to make things better for all.
Right on! And your great-grandma was right about the carrots.
Plus we would do well to include Indigenous people amongst those who had it rough. They created a deeply rooted lifestyle in harmony with their world until it was upended by newcomers, after which their hardships make most of ours pale.