2018: Grapes of Wrath

Since early 2017, I've sat and watched this 'opera' unfold with the Trump business, and the anti-Trump take-down camp.

The surprising element for me is that in the midst of this whole dramatic opera, few sit and take note that three-million Americans are hired and working today, than as on 1 January 2017.  Folks are sitting around and kinda noting that cousin so-and-so  who'd been laid off in 2015....is actually working today, and almost ready to buy a new car.  Or that Joe's sister who has a worthless degree in women's studies....got hired as a tourism expert for the city of Nashville.  Or that Uncle Buddy got hired as a truck-driver last week....at the youthful age of 64.

As you stand and observe this landscape, and people in some transit of life.....I am reminded of the great classic of all time....Grapes of Wrath (by John Steinbeck).

In the mid-1930s....Steinbeck was observing Americana and the negative feeling of people.  The depression was having an affect on our lives, and triggering people to take extreme measures.  When published in 1939....it quickly moved up into the circles of awards.

For those who don't remember, it was about the Joads of Oklahoma, and how terribles woes had come to them, and they just saw terrible suffering with every twist and turn.  They'd gone through the bankruptcy business, and saw terrible drought conditions there on the farm.

So the Joads eventually gave up, and laid out a path to California, where they were going to seek jobs, opportunity, and hope for the future.

I won't go into great detail, but Tom (the chief character) reaches some stage where he has to go off on his own, and the family sits there....existing off of hope.

So, life today is basically the opposite of Grapes of Wrath.  Folks have sat around for two to three decades....suffering and watching jobs disappear.  They watched the bankruptcy era come and go (2008).  They saw fake hope come, over and over. 

Then one day, this Trump-fellow comes around.  Something odd happens.

It's the entire reverse path of the Joads of 'California'.  Suddenly now, there are jobs.  There's talk of opportunity.  There's some hiring for folks with no real skills.  There's talk of companies expanding.  Everywhere the Joads turn now....inspiration and a hope for the future.  In a way, we need a Steinbeck to stand up and write a modern-day Grapes of Wrath, but it ought to be told the exact opposite way.  Instead of Tom (the chief character) reaching some stage where he has to to go off on his own....he's instead announcing his return, and planting himself to a job with the local industry, and the family sitting there in disbelief that this Trump-hope thing....just ain't as fake as they thought.