Star from a Cactus

Things do seem to be getting worse before they might get better. I guess most industries are in a tougher storm than many people could have possibly imagined six to nine months ago. As readily inferred from the gloomy but common headlines of layoffs and pay cuts, all balancing acts of trimming capacity and resources to match shrinking demand in surviving hard times are being exhausted by struggling companies around the world.

Indeed when numbers remain stubbornly in the red week after week, with no sign of any resurrection on the horizon, economic downturn becomes a haunting reality, not just headlines. Far worse than the pseudo-terror of a roller-coaster ride, where you know the sure rise after a decend - however deep - it feels like falling blindly in a bottomless abyss. As in the stock or any money markets in bearish mode, it is a painful bottom-searching process.

But if the chances are that everyone has to experience some period(s) of economic recession sooner or later in a lifetime, it is probably better sooner than later, leaving the good times more towards the end. If it is a matter of nature that a period of excess and profligacy has to be followed, if not punished, with one of destitution and parsimony, the wisdom of living is probably about finding the middle ground. And if it is a matter of fate that one has to face hard times anyway, suffering or not is still more a matter of choice than otherwise.

I remember having read somewhere the sardonic but enlightening quip: "If in hell, just keep walking through it." And if a star can bud out from a cactus, there is always hope from where there is life.