Faith is the Tonic to Fear

The current state of lockdowns, shutdowns, induced economic coma, and asset price implosion has reminded us that all things—good and bad—ultimately come to an end.  It reminds us that prior generations dealt with inconveniences, fear of the unknown, and shortages of one kind or another.  However, we can be assured that after the storm, the destruction, the losses, and even the deaths come another round of sunshine, rebuilding, favor, and new life.  Because we tend to magnify the dread and depression that persists from times like these, it can be hard to remember the comfort and abundance that we enjoyed just a month or two before.

The great Long Islander Harry Chapin poetically captured this cycle of change: “No straight lines make up my life and all my roads have bends.  There’s no clear-cut beginning and, so far, no dead-ends.”

In every generation—sometimes in every decade—there are events that seem to threaten the very existence of this country.  People come to question the foundational values that define our American experiment.  But somehow, we endure, we adapt, and we persevere.  Just as our parents did.  Just as our grandparents did.  Just as our Founding Fathers did. 

The Great Recession Wrought an 11-Year Bull Market

The Great Recession of 2008-2009 came on the heels of a housing boom that had enriched so many.  In our household, my wife and I had just gotten married following my promotion to Managing Director at my company.  We were blessed to find out she was pregnant with our first child when I got news that the company was dissolving its healthcare banking and research business.   Not long after, my wife’s employer announced its own dramatic downsizing as the financial crisis hit community banks very hard.  Investment accounts were beaten down and even our largest banks were staring down the barrel of bankruptcy.  My Mom was hospitalized for an extended period and could not feed herself.  How much worse could it be?

Well, 2009 came and our daughter was born.  My Mom recovered and met her first grandchild.  New paths of employment emerged.  We bought our first home and started a new chapter in our lives. The stock market bottomed and began an 11-year bull run that replenished and multiplied investments.  Savings rates grew, banks strengthened, unemployment fell, and new technologies emerged.

The 9/11 Tragedy United Our People in a Fight Against Terrorism

The 9/11 attacks of 2001 rocked our world like nothing else had since 1941.  We were all shocked and horrified to see the nightmare of terrorism hit home in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania.  In New York, we saw the billowing smoke from the World Trade Center and wondered when the next attacks might take place.  We mourned the loss of so many innocent lives at the hands of cold-blooded extremists.  We tremulously stood in lines at the airports as every bag and every container was examined thoroughly.  Our innocence seemed forever lost to a new reality.

From this tragedy came rebirth.  A new WTC was constructed and reached higher than before.  Americans went back to work, traveled, invested, innovated, and came together.  We understood the need for more security, more ID checks, and certain inconveniences.  Our country took the fight to the terrorists and some despots—with mixed results—and has not since endured a major attack on our homeland.

The Riots of the 1960s and the Malaise of the 1970s Brought the Cold War Victory of the 1980s

The 1960s were a period when the fabric of America seemed to unravel.  Assassinations of a President, a civil rights icon, and others left many to feel helpless to the violence.  Riots in the streets by anti-war protesters, random acts of violence by fringe groups, and pervasive drug abuse by much of the youth culture further undermined Americans’ view of the future.  Civil discourse seemed a quaint artifact of a simpler time.  Our involvement in yet another foreign war claimed the lives of countless soldiers and exposed a deep divide in this country.  My birth in that era must have been an act of supreme faith by my parents that things would somehow turn out all right.

The 1970s were a time of Watergate, the fall of Vietnam, high inflation, hostages in Iran, gas lines, and fears that our country had become a “paper tiger”.  Trust in our institutions had plummeted and it seemed as if our economy was subject to the decisions made by OPEC.  American foreign policy was hamstrung by mullahs in Tehran, the USSR in Afghanistan, and Sandinistas in Nicaragua.  Even our military seemed to be falling behind in the arms race.

However, in the 1980s, a new US President and new freedom-minded leaders in Britain, Japan, Germany, and the Vatican came to power.  Our economy got through a deep recession and returned to the longest period of peacetime expansion in history to that point.  Inflation went from double digits to low single digits—where it has remained for nearly 40 years.  The 45-year Cold War that had hung over the heads of the world ended with a thorough victory for democracy and capitalism.  The Berlin Wall was leveled and hundreds of millions of Eastern Europeans tasted freedom.  Patriotism was back on display and American companies would emerge to catalyze an entirely new age in technology and connectedness.

Faith is the Tonic to Fear

Throughout history, our world has been beset by tragedies that were overwhelming at the time.  Plagues, tsunamis, hurricanes, wars, dictators, genocides and other disasters have claimed innocent lives and left ruin in their wake.  If fear and retreat were the only responses to such events, the Orwellian anti-utopia of 1984 would already be upon us.  Instead, the usual human reaction has been a combination of hope, aspiration, and faith—whether in a religion, a constitution, or an ideal.  Our family’s Christian faith guides us to not allow the world’s many problems to consume us, but to take solace in the redemption that we have already been gifted by God, who loves us. 

Our country’s Constitution has helped us weather multiple wars, economic depressions, various pandemics, and cultural uprisings because it entrusts power in no one entity, but the will and wisdom of our citizenry.  The American spirit of ingenuity, rugged individualism, and freedom with responsibility has triggered untold innovations and solutions that may have been inconceivable during periods of misery and discomfort.  Our civic responses to wars, storms, terrorist attacks, and economic disasters have always helped to lift the USA up from near-term challenges.  I firmly believe that if we stay in faith and remember the sacrifices our forebears have made on our behalf, we can similarly let our good works allow America to remain a beacon of light and promise in this world.