IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD (Part 2)

What do you do for a living? How did you get there? Last week I was reading an article written by my son. In it, he was telling the story about giving a presentation in Australia in 2019. As I read the article, my mind flooded back to the family history of work, and what the people that came before us did to make a living. My son writes, speaks, and helps people in a specific discipline. His windshield on the world is wide and deep. On the other hand, I found my passion as a teen and have been lucky ever since.

Just in the past 100 years the world of work has changed over and over again. As immigrants flooded into this country from Europe, they came together, gathering in the same areas and felt lucky to get work, any work. Years later the great depression hit and many could not find work. This dark time took away the dreams and hopes of many, those only looking to put a roof over their families' heads and food in their bellies. Dreams during this time were in the same short supply as jobs. Then came World War 2 and its aftermath. We were that nation ready, willing, and able to rebuild the world and dreams grew wider, work became plentiful. My parents were children of the depression however, and their dreams rested in the future with their kids. My Dad had the roughest hands I have ever shaken. He did hard work, sometimes working three jobs at once in order to pay the bills.

Because this nation rebuilt the world after 1945, we had a grand 30 year run in building a great economy, a dream for many: a chance to keep a job and build a better life. Dreams have grown with each generation over the past 100 years. People have moved from begging for work, to looking for a job, to now searching hard for their "dream job." I can't imagine my Grandfather the cop, looking too kindly on people searching for a dream job, yet he, just as the rest of us, was a product of his time. He knew what he knew and no more. As my son continues to build his career, I look at ways to tie the generations together. In the past 70 years we have gone from an entire family living inside a mile or two of each other, to giving a presentation before hundreds, in a far off land. No matter your neighborhood, it all begins with the size of your dreams, and the tenacity in your soul.