It’s an old story; one that has been told many times. You know how the story goes: it’s easy to break a single twig but much more difficult to break a twig when it’s part of a bundle.

Simple wisdom, easily grasped.

The question facing us all today is not if we will survive the current economic downturn; of course we will. The question is how much pain will be suffered by how many people before this storm passes? If sufficient numbers of Americans work together, if we form “bundles” from coast to coast, we will get past this crisis more quickly and with less pain.

Like the bundle of twigs, each individual grows stronger by association with others. We give strength to each other and in the process the whole becomes much, much more than the sum of its parts.

We can’t prevent suffering; it’s too late for that. As more jobs are lost, the newly unemployed are likely to join the ranks of the suffering. But if Americans find ways to work together, we have it in our power to reduce the suffering. Where can we start? By rising to meet this challenge: to see ourselves not only as individuals but also as part of a larger whole, as part of a team.

The larger whole may be one’s neighborhood, city or state; or it could be the whole world. All Americans are in this together. The sooner we start acting like a team and doing whatever it is we can do improve the world around us, the sooner this crisis will begin to turn around.

As a group, we have the power exert some level of control over how the recession plays out. If we don’t act in bundles, if we act as individuals our situation turns into every man/woman/child for him/herself.