One of my favorite Christmas gifts was earphones and an app for my phone that lets me have books read to me. It was given to me by my granddaughter. She knew how much I loved to read and she realized that with my low vision it was getting harder to read as much as I would like. The audible book app solved that problem.
The last book I listened to was about what was going on in our country 80-some years ago during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The title of the book is “The Four Winds,” a novel by Kristin Hannah.
As I “read” the book, I was reminded of how many things that happened back then can relate to what we read about in the newspaper and hear on television today. The things that people went through back then were horrible and I hope we will never have to suffer as so many of them did. However, we do have big problems to deal with today.
People from the Midwest went searching for a better life in California. Today, people from other countries are moving into the United States to find a better life. Many are being moved farther into the United States to be cared for. This presents many problems for governments to take care of.
The weather was one thing that the people could not control back then. Sand storms came and ruined crops. Rains fell in abundance, causing flooding and disasters.
We hear about these same things today. Drought is present in parts of the U.S. Snow levels have been beyond belief in some places. Many cities have been flooded numerous times. We do have detailed weather forecasts, but we still can not control what weather comes our way.
The book surely did show the difference between the “haves” and the “have nots.” Don’t we see that today also? Which cities do not have a homeless problem? How many are on welfare in order to feed their families? Has inflation not made it difficult to feed our families properly? Do we not hear of greed causing many to take advantage of the poor?
In the book I learned about strikes that were used to get better wages. We hear about them often today. When the workers back then were not getting a fair wage for their work, that seemed like the only way for them to speak up. Perhaps today there is too much greed in the ones who threaten to strike if they do not get what they want.
Throughout the story of hard times, there was family, pride, love for each other, and love for the land. Even with all our problems we can see in our country today, there is a great need for these attributes.
Whether you listen to an audible book or check one out of the library, as you listen or read you will be able to relate to years gone by or compare that time with the present. Let’s hope we learn from our past and make our present life and our future life better.
