FACING ADVERSITY FOR THE FIRST TIME, PANDEMIC EDITION

The biggest take aways from facing adversity the first time are the tools and tactics we learn for the next time.

And there’s always a next time. Maybe not as big as now, but the tools still apply.

So, what are the tools needed for facing adversity? You’ve come to the right place, reader.

First, pinpoint the adversity. Is it personal or public? Is it a private struggle? Family and relationships? Job related?

The list of human needs begins with food, shelter, and clothing. When it’s broken down to the basics, the nature of adversity comes into better focus.

Food adversity is one of the most frightening adversities to face. But, there’s help. Click the link for more examples like this:

Tigard-Tualatin School District: For district students Pre-K through 12th grade, there are grab- and-go sites for pick up of prepackaged breakfast and lunch from 10:30am-12:30pm, Monday- Friday. Pick up sites are at Metzger Elementary School at 10350 Lincoln St, Tigard, OR 97223 and at Tualatin Elementary School at 20405 SW 95th Ave, Tualatin, OR 97062.

My experience with food adversity came with throat cancer and the painful experience or swallowing anything. Even a breath of fresh air hurt, but I did what I had to do: work through. Facing adversity like that showed me how cruel anything could be.

Facing Adversity In Clothing And Shelter

From Caring Closet:

We provide clothes, shoes, hygiene products and emergency bedding supplies to children in need within the Tigard-Tualatin school district. Each school age child referred by their school counselor can have one visit to our store in the fall/winter and one visit in the spring for summer clothes. 

Community effort makes a town a home town for kids, and a destination for families who care. Tigard is such a town. And it’s not alone. Google clothing and shelter in your town and get set for a surprise.

This is link to resources in Bend, Oregon, which is where people think of when they hear North Bend.

Adversity For Okay Boomer

“I remember the time in the dorm when I didn’t have a quarter for a can of Coke. I had to wait until the cafeteria opened.”

“It was tough when I spent all my money on beer and ran out of gas.”

“When styles changed, I was glad. I’ve been wearing old, ripped, jeans forever.”

If you have any doubts about how other boomers manage to survive, just ask a millennial their opinion of boomers, also known as parents.

“What can you expect from people who paid $200 a term for college and funded their education with summer jobs. If we wanted to do that, our summer jobs would have been robbing banks.”

“We will never understand why old people make such a big deal out of eating, out of preparing food, or going out. It’s food, not a carnival.”

“Our thing is experiences, not objects. We like to do things, not hoard. It’s all about making memories.”

Is there a challenge hidden in the animosity? Yes, and it’s not shunning millennials and ruining the fun.

Sure, college was cheaper, so was gas, beer, and food. Then it wasn’t. Who would more surprised than the people who lived it? And now we’ve got commentators to break it down in we forget one detail.

A Hard Truth

I’m as surprised as can be at how things turned out, how things keep turning out. If what you see and hear currently is the way you’ve always dreamed things could be, shake yourself.

If you look at the biggest picture of Big Pictures, and decide some people are expendable, then ask: Who made them that way?

Let me tell you, your expendable people don’t think they’re expendable. They’ve never thought they were expendable. Ask the next homeless person you meet for their opinion. What, you don’t know any homeless people? Neither do I, but I see evidence all around.

If you know anti-homeless people, anti-science, or anti-vaxxers, they have one thing in common: they believe they are correct with every fiber in their soul.

Does the anti-homeless person explain how homelessness is a choice, how food adversity is a choice? The same when they pick and choose their way through science?

The sad truth is coming to realize how people respond when personally facing adversity they didn’t expect. From panic, to anxiety, to anger, to resolution. People work through problems their own way, but when it’s bigger than them, they need to look at the big picture.

What do you see in your big picture?