Ed. note: Welcome to the third installment of the five part series, Living With the Recession by author and executive consultant Granville Toogood, who also happens to be my uncle as well. For more information on Granville, visit his website [here].

The Silver Lining

Last summer,Bob and Vicky were on the verge of divorce. But now they’re actually talking about saving for a second honeymoon.

For the first time ever, John now has time to read to his kids at night before they go to bed.

Linda has patched things up with her mother after years of bad feeling. Now they’re even planning a trip together.

In a complete turnabout,Ted’s high school kids are suddenly getting serious about their futures and hitting the books.

Alex and Jennifer’s three kids spend more quality time with mom and dad.  Now the whole family sits downevery night for dinner.

These are just a few examples of how the current cloud of economic recession has begun to reveal its silver lining. If you listen closely to the buzz, you will be hearing more stories like these every day.

And a lot of people think it’s a good thing. They’ll tell it’s time we put the brakes on runaway credit and debit card spending, instant gratification, grabby excess, keeping up with the Joneses, and all the other frenzied behaviors that have become embedded in our culture for the last three decades.

We want to believe we had a good time — but now we can see it was sometimes at a price of sinking ethics, rising anxieties, cavalier wastefulness, and misplaced values.

Curiously, the current gloom and doom has had the effect of smoothing relationships, bringing friends and families closer together, simplifying and clarifying daily life, and jerking our priorities back where they belong.

And even though consumer spending is down, environmental awareness is up. The “green” economy seems to be riding the warm winds of the recession, with people looking to waste less, and make energy-saving choices.

Still, not everyone is benefitting from the setback. In many parts of the country, violence, alcohol and drug are all up, and police report more apparent suicide, and attempted suicide.

But in spite of all the downbeat news, a strange sense of relief and optimism persists in some quarters– and it’s not about money or wealth.

“It’s a good thing,” a friend told me. “Business is bad and a lot of people I know are out of work. But their lives are actually better. People are closer now, and they are beginning to take pleasure in a lot of things they had almost forgotten.”

Such as?

“Such as family, friends, more free time, and just enjoying small things, like smelling the flowers for the first time since they were ten years old, and just feeling grateful about being alive.”

Maybe when the rebound finally comes, this time we won’t forget that the small things are really the big things.