Savor the recession

Grant McCracken, an optimistic blogger at This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics writes that in an economic downturn people shift from "surging" to "dwelling".

See if this sounds like people you know in a downturn:

"In the dwelling modality, the consumer is not forward looking, but concentrated on the here and now. Now most of life's pleasure comes from counting one's blessings. This is a dwelling modality, because the individual is no longer in transit, racing towards a better tomorrow. Now the consumer is focused on what is good about what one has. The consumer stops anticipating and starts savoring."

I think people mostly "worry" in a downturn, not "savor". Maybe if you have tenure, you can "savor".

We might, indeed, be better people if we heeded the advice in Matthew 6, but it's really hard to do. It's more of an ideal to aim for, than the inner peace most of us can achieve:

"25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?"