Imagine that your family is adventuresome – very adventuresome. So, you decide that you are going to sail around the world – in 1971 – leaving Cornwall, England. The trip is going well until your 43-foot wooden schooner is attacked by Orcas (killer whales) and sinks in the Pacific Ocean. For the next thirty-eight (38) days, five (5) family members of the Robertson family, and a young hitchhiker (number 6) floated in a life raft in the Pacific Ocean. I won’t spoil the story. Rather I will direct you to this BBC story for the rest.
We know that the Robertson’s survived. Yet for 38 days they had no idea they would be rescued. Their life became not just a day-to-day survival routine – it became a minute-by-minute survival routine – including having to manually blow air in their raft to keep it afloat. Yet working together they did survive.
This year has been a hard and troubling year – with recent troubles in the Middle East only adding to the difficulty. It has also been a hard banking year with the Silicon Valley Bank scare, high-interest rate increases making it hard to buy homes, and inflation impacting everyone’s buying power. Its understandable if folks are in a foul or funky mood.
As I listened to the Robertson’s survival story, I realized that much of my worries were minuscule when it came to their life and death struggles. I thought, what if I took the next Thirty-Four (34) days (until Thanksgiving) to think about the blessings in my life – and share with others what I’m grateful for during those 34 days? Then, for the next four (4) days after Thanksgiving keeping it up. That brings us to a total of 38 days of Thanksgiving.
Perhaps that will make this year’s Holiday season more meaningful in a hard times when it seems everyone is out for themselves and to remind myself how blessed I really am.
Have a great week.
– Leton
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“Letters From Leton” is a blog series comprised of the weekly updates that Leton Harding – President, Chairman, and CEO of Powell Valley National Bank, shares with the Bank’s team members. These newsletters are full of uplifting anecdotes and intriguing insights that are applicable beyond the Bank, so we want to share them with you.
