#crisis

I felt held hostage by her illness and by the backward mental health system that once again was incapable of helping our family in crisis. ↗

— Mira Bartok

#hostage #mental-health #family

Towards the end of your life you have something like a pain schedule to fill out—a long schedule like a federal document, only it's your pain schedule. Endless categories. First, physical causes—like arthritis, gallstones, menstrual cramps. New category, injured vanity, betrayal, swindle, injustice. But the hardest items of all have to do with love. The question then is: So why does everybody persist? If love cuts them up so much.... ↗

— Saul Bellow

#life #midlife-crisis #pain-schedule #life

Everyone I meet now is at least ten years younger than me. I feel like Rip van Winkle with a bald spot. ↗

— Jaffe Cohen

#mid-life-crisis #life

In any love-story there are usually two stages or phases. There is the initial stage, where love is expressed by the giving of gifts, especially the gift of self. Then there comes a time when it is no longer enough to give gifts to the beloved, but one has to be ready to suffer for her or for him. Only then can it be seen whether the love is real. In the story of a vocation to consecrated virginity there are also usually two stages. There is the initial stage of the vocation, when, spurred on by grace and attracted by the ideal, one joyfully and enthusiastically says, "Yes, Lord, here I am!" Then comes the time of solitude of heart, of weariness, of crisis, when, in order to maintain that "Yes," one has to die ↗

— Raniero Cantalamessa

#solitude #vocation #love

The crisis and recession have led to very low interest rates, it is true, but these events have also destroyed jobs, hamstrung economic growth and led to sharp declines in the values of many homes and businesses. ↗

— Ben Bernanke

#businesses #crisis #declines #destroyed #economic

The crisis in Europe has affected the U.S. economy by acting as a drag on our exports, weighing on business and consumer confidence, and pressuring U.S. financial markets and institutions. ↗

— Ben Bernanke

#affected #business #confidence #consumer #consumer confidence