Channeling My Inner Churchill

What is it about the British? What is it with our ongoing fascination, or at least mine?

Some of my favorite quotes are from dear old Winnie – Never, never, never give up. Or what about, If you are going through hell, keep going. That has helped me through the last three years of sandwich generation purgatory with my elderly parents.

And knowing that Churchill governed his nation through a war while suffering bouts of depression?! No wonder he’s my patron saint. No drama Obama? Nah, how about a cigar and a jigger of Scotch?

Now that we get to not only sound like our parents but relive their lives – aka The Greater Depression – we need a soundtrack and a mantra to get us through. Not that we don’t have our own great photos of bread lines and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” to fall back on. But it all sounds so much more civilized through the prism of the Queen’s English and a cuppa. Stiff upper lip and all that.

Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory – World War II poster – do read the article on the BBC site. Or like my English friend says, “You Americans whine too much.” Oh. I thought I was sharing. You mean I really am neurotic.

Perhaps it’s the gray, rainy weather we’re having in SoCal and that I get to use the blue EU umbrella my daughter gave me and that I schlepped home from Germany on the plane (No room for my restless legs but plenty for an umbrella during the greatest drought in a century) that brings out the English in me.

Or maybe it’s the Beatles album, yes, vinyl album, that the other daughter bought at a swap meet yesterday. “The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.” I pointed to one of the two tickets on the cover and said, “I went to that concert,” where upon she immediately called her fellow swap meeter and said, minus a hello, “My mom went to that concert.” Who said your children won’t ever think you’re cool? Hah!

Or the tons of English lit I’ve consumed since “Le Morte d’Arthur” by Sir Thomas Malory in 9th grade followed by Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca” and her gothic copycats and reams more historical fiction from Roman Britain all the way through to Bridget Jones. Anyone for a little Emma Thompson?

In any case, I need something to calm my nerves because I’ll never be able to retire, take another vacation, turn on the AC or the heater (yes, we do use a heater in SoCal) or sell the house and move to the walkable city of my dreams, but I will indeed end up eating dog food just before I starve to death while trying to make dresses, à la Scarlet in Gone With the Wind, from the floral café curtains in the kitchen.

I’ll be found hunched over the computer, emailing an editor equally as gray and decrepit as me, begging her to schedule a 15 minute interview with my very unique, very topical client who will be the very kernel of a fantastically useful and informative story that will generate oodles of praise from grateful readers.

I’ve stocked up on tins of tuna fish. Sounds ever so much more manageable than a can of beans.

Great Depression II

I just came back from back-to-school night for our daughter who’s a high school junior. She’s taking, among other subjects, AP English and AP History – the American versions of both.

She doesn’t know how lucky she is. To be reading about our great country during the difficult times we’re going through. Of course, she’s only 16 and she isn’t aware of the problems.

I thought if I told her about the financial market debacle this week I could guilt her into cleaning up her room and getting more organized for what should be a most difficult year but I was being selfish and stopped myself before I dumped the problems of the adults on the shoulders of a 16 year old.

But I did want to sit in on her classes for sure, especially if this time around I could bring to it the knowledge and discipline of an adult. Instead, I went to the Internet to find Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s speech about the four freedoms and then I started surfing. I found his first inaugural address from March 4, 1933, the one about fear and read it all the way through. I was guessing that it would be as encouraging a message for our times as it was for my parents and grandparents going through the Great Depression. Damned if I wasn’t right.

Check out this site for the speech. Read through all of it. It will lift your spirits. After a week of financial disaster and head banging BS from the Republican candidates, I needed to know that if we got out of one hell of a pickle, we could once again. You will be amazed at how similar our times are to those of the First Great Depression.

Surely FDR’s America, listening around a radio, was no smarter than our America now. Yet Mr. Bush is seemingly AWOL once again. A bad case of senioritis I would say. And McCain/Palin, well, I’m beyond insulted at how stupid they must think I am. Once we had real leaders. I pray that one day we will again. Obama can inspire, but can he lead, can he pull together his own brain trust for the tough days ahead?

When economists throw around phrases like “worst financial disaster since the Great Depression” I can only assume that they know the full impact of what they are saying. I can only hope that they aren’t just reaching for another sound bite, that they actually stayed awake during their American history and English classes. Because I did and those words have resonated in my head all week.

My daughter has to read John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath this year. Perhaps I should offer to be her study buddy.