The Cliff Walk

"I told her the truth about myself then: that like a lot of people in this country I had lost my job and all my money and everything else that I'd always believed added up to the promise of a secure life. How I'd had things my own way for so long that when this happened I spent most of two years feeling sorry for myself and looking for somebody to blame. How I took solace from news reports about how hard life had become in America, until I realized that life had always been hard for a lot of people, people I thought I was better than, and that the only thing that had changed was that bad things were finally starting to happen to people like me who had it so good for so long. I told her that the whole time I was putting my family through hard times I knew what was the best thing to do for them and what was the worst thing, and I always chose the worst thing because it was easier."

~~ from The Cliff Walk by Don J. Snyder