Imagine that you were born in 1900
When you are 14 years old
World War I begins
and it ends when you turn 18,
with 22 million dead.
Shortly after - a global pandemic,
the illness called "Spanish Flu",
it kills between 17 and 100 million people.
You walk out alive and free,
and you are 20 years old.
Then at age 29 you survive a global economic crisis that began with the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange causing inflation, unemployment, and hunger.
In 33 the nazis are coming to power.
You're 39 when does the 2nd start world war
and it ends when you are 45 years old during the Holocaust (Shoah), 6 million Jews die.
There will be more than 60 million dead in total.
When you're 52 the Korean War starts.
When you're 64, the Vietnam War starts and ends when you're 75.
Today, we are handed a different kind of torch. Our challenge is not to survive a world at war, but to master ourselves in a world of plenty. We have the extraordinary opportunity to take the comfort we have been given and turn it into compassion.
When we shift our focus from what we are "missing" to the abundance that surrounds us, our world transforms. We realize that we are not victims of our time, but the architects of it. If those born in 1900 could find the "joy of life" through global catastrophes, then surely we can find it in our morning coffee, our warm homes, and our ability to connect with anyone on the planet in an instant and unprecedented comforts in all areas of life.
Let us honor those who came before us by living with a little more grit and a lot more gratitude. You are stronger than you realize, you are more blessed than you often feel, and you have the power to make this world even better for those who will be born a hundred years from now. Smile, breathe, and move forward with hope—because the human spirit is, and always has been, unbreakable.
יודו לה' חסדו ונפלאותיו לבני אדם!!!!
