I just saw a really fine movie about the Great Depression and the theme was: Don’t let it beat you!
Kit Kittredge is a well-made film about tough times, everyone pulling together and important lessons in resilience for those of us of all ages.
Kit is ten and she wants to be a writer more than anything else, so I could relate to that part! But her happy, comfortable family life appears to be falling apart when her Dad loses his job. Her neighbors are losing their homes up and down her block (does this sound familiar?) and her Dad has to move to Chicago to try and find work.
We all know the story of the Great Depression, but I found a story within the story, and that is: How well can each of us cope when things start going wrong. Do we fall apart and start blaming everyone else? Or do we pull together and help each other survive the toughest time of our lives?
I found this to be one of my own important lessons when I was confronted with round after round of midlife crisis in the past few years. Tough times can either destroy us, make us blame everyone but ourselves, or instead encourage us to step up, take full responsibility, and become even more independent, creative and resourceful than ever before. In fact, we may learn quite a bit about ourselves by facing the kind of adversity we thought we could never survive.
Just like my favorite saying when times were really tough: “Hang on, it all changes,” “Don’t let it beat you” tells us not to give in or lower our standards for ourselves just because we sometimes feel defeated.
There will always be tough times, but are you tough enough to weather the storm, and perhaps become a better person because of the challenges you face?
