{"id":6126,"date":"2008-12-14T08:33:04","date_gmt":"2008-12-14T15:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=6126"},"modified":"2009-02-04T09:31:41","modified_gmt":"2009-02-04T16:31:41","slug":"hope-and-despair-at-the-onset-of-economic-recession-who-cares-about-the-tunnel-all-i-can-see-is-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6126\/hope-and-despair-at-the-onset-of-economic-recession-who-cares-about-the-tunnel-all-i-can-see-is-the-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope and despair at the onset of economic recession: Who cares about the tunnel? All I can see is the light…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t do well in despair.<\/p>\n

Clarify that. I don’t mean that, when I find myself in despair, I fare especially badly.<\/p>\n

What is mean is, if despair were a classroom discipline for which one could be tested and graded, I would probably flunk out.<\/p>\n

I’ve lived through some ugly stuff in my life — who hasn’t? — but mostly I didn’t notice. I’m good at thinking — or so I like to think. And, good at it or not, I really do like<\/em> to think. But I can only think about one thing at a time. For most of my time, for most of my life, I like to think about work. I like to think about what I’m doing. I like to think about what I’m getting done.<\/em><\/p>\n

That doesn’t leave much room in my mind for despair. Or depression. Or gloom or sadness or fear or doubt or pain or worry or any of the things that people talk about when they’re not talking about work. I know about those ideas, much as I know about ideas like schadenfreude<\/em> or universal guilt, things that I’ve heard about or read about but never seen from the inside.<\/p>\n

You could say that’s my good luck, I suppose, but I’m sure it’s a choice on my part. Who hasn’t known sadness, after all? It’s not that I’ve never lived with painful emotions, it’s simply that I choose not to live with them any longer than I have to — which almost always turns out to be no time at all. I turn to my work not to escape from pain, nor even to work to alleviate it. I turn to my work because that’s what I love most in my life — and my purpose in living is to love my life.<\/p>\n

But I come up short, I think, because I’m so badly equipped to prepare for desperate times. We’re headed into an economic recession, perhaps a depression, and I truly don’t know what to think about it. I’ve lived through several of these episodes in the past, and I worked right through all of them and Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t do well in despair. Clarify that. I don’t mean that, when I find myself in despair, I fare especially badly. What is mean is, if despair were a classroom discipline for which one could be tested and graded, I would probably flunk out. I’ve lived through some ugly stuff in my life — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,24,212,29,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-egoism-in-action","8":"category-flourishing","9":"category-group-therapy","10":"category-technology","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16225,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16225\/a-scause-for-applause-south-park-rescues-you-from-despair-and-ennui\/","url_meta":{"origin":6126,"position":0},"title":"A Scause for applause: South Park rescues you from despair and ennui.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I am ignoring this place, and in this I am clearly not alone. I have other things commanding my attention. If y'all want to talk about real estate, you know what to do. Meanwhile, with the kind of surgical concision we have learned to expect, South Park takes on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12313,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12313\/reasons-to-be-cheerful-part-1-5-who-cares-about-the-tunnel-all-i-can-see-is-the-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":6126,"position":1},"title":"Reasons to be cheerful, Part 1.5: Who cares about the tunnel? All I can see is the light…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this eighteen months ago, when this economic recession was just getting started. I looked at it again tonight and found nothing in it that I wanted to change. I have more to say on the subject of a long recession, perhaps a depression, but this is a very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3227,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3227\/the-story-of-gregs-life-right-now-in-six-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":6126,"position":2},"title":"The story of Greg’s life right now in six words","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Cox died. No connectivity. Despair looms.","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17451,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17451\/overnight-news-since-mostly-peaceful-means-violent-does-fundamentally-fair-mean-george-bush-and-the-deep-state-agree-the-election-was-rigged\/","url_meta":{"origin":6126,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: Since \u201cmostly peaceful\u201d means violent, does \u201cfundamentally fair\u201d mean George Bush and the Deep State agree the election was\u00a0rigged?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the week we find out if we are a nation of laws and not of thugs. The mainstream media, social media and the Deep State have made it plain that we are a culture of lies, for now. Take heart: Just as Trump changed America's attitude from despair\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15711,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15711\/lunchtime-links-will-the-robo-signing-settlement-fail-will-western-civ-collapse-to-ruins-who-cares-sheldon-cooper-lives\/","url_meta":{"origin":6126,"position":4},"title":"Lunchtime links: Will the robo-signing settlement fail? Will Western Civ collapse to ruins? Who cares? Sheldon Cooper lives!","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"From good friend of the dawgs, Jim Klein, comes this grim reminder of the times we live in: SurvivalRealty.com. Todd Zywicki finds the robo-signing settlement unsettling. But despair you nothing: There is a real-life Sheldon Cooper going to high school in Nevada. Limited lunchtime? Give it all to the third\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17412,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17412\/overnight-news-when-we-are-shielded-solely-by-the-courage-of-men-like-tucker-carlson-and-glenn-greenwald-that-would-be-a-government-of-men-and-not-of-laws\/","url_meta":{"origin":6126,"position":5},"title":"Overnight News: When we are shielded solely by the courage of men like Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald \u2013 that would be a government of men and not of\u00a0laws.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I closed a house yesterday \u2013 I'm bragging about it just below \u2013 so I refuse to despair. Life is luck, ab initio, and we can hope we will be lucky enough to make it past Election Day... Yesterday on BloodhoundBlog: Greg Swann: A Bloodhound\u2019s fish story: $10k over list,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6126"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6822,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions\/6822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}