PEOPLE TO LIVE BY

First of all today, thank you to the first responders, national guard units, essential food workers, mail carriers and other delivery workers, teachers and all you volunteers who have stepped in to perform your civic duty.

Many of us spend our lives ready for challenges, going through heartbreaks, and learning how to navigate the ups and downs of life. We don't think too much about getting old. I am having one of those cringe moments right now when I find myself in the age group that needs to stay in place. It's unsettling to be the person who needs help. I'm used to offering help instead. I am grateful for those helping hands today.

Luckily, our neighborhood is full of generous people with many offers of help and friendliness. We had a flash mob last Friday. We stood outside on our front steps to check in on each other and talk. We plan to do it again.

These past weeks reminds me of listening to my mother and grandmother talk about living through the Great Depression and World War II. My grandmother also lived through WWI, the War to End All Wars, which really was only the beginning of the strife and turbulence we see today.

My mother and grandmother talked of going without and making do, of using cotton feed sacks to make clothing, of the scarcity of butter and gasoline, of having to use coupons to purchase scarce items.

Today we wonder what actions our government will take to support the people who need help. Before the Great Depression, people had no safety net. Due to the actions taken by President Roosevelt, we now have Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the FDIC. Later President Johnson added Medicare and Medicaid. We can see the legacy of the PWA and CCC, programs that provided much-needed work for job-seekers during the Depression. The workers built post offices, dams, and developed national parks. These government programs provided support and certainty when it was needed most.

Thinking of my mother and grandmother, I picked up my pens to illustrate phrases that have slipped from our consciousness and values. As a student of lettering, I am still learning technique and my wobbles can only add character to my letters -- they are good practice.

Have you found other phrases and poems like these that can help us all through this difficult time? Post them on Instagram at  #postcardsintheair

If you are curious about feed sacks and what to make from them, check out the magazine Uppercase, a bi-monthly collection about creative people around the world. The publisher, Jan Vangool, offers an Encyclopedia of Inspiration with one volume devoted to Feed Sacks.

https://uppercasemagazine.com

Take care everyone and reach out too.