I wrote this on 6th December 2008, as the world was suffering a major recession. I find now, 12 years on, this to be relevant in today's pandemic-ravaged world. I have made some edits to the original text for modern context.

When I was a boy - a little boy of only about 4 or 5 - we had Hard Times. I remember the irony of my elder (now late) sister, Jeanette having to study the Charles Dickens novel of that title as a set-work in high school. I remember the pathos too, of her actually enjoying it and being one of the few students who actually read the book. She got better marks than I did in Grade 12 and we studied Shakespeare - life is not fair!

The original Hard Times was somewhat of a “state-of-the-nation” novel by Mr Dickens, and although I must confess to never having read the book, I believe it might be very relevant right now in South Africa, and probably most of the world.

Before I continue, something that a friend, Donovan Coetzee has preached on many previous occasions, springs to mind right here: “as long as there are Hard Times (challenges, troubles), then at least I know that God is not finished with me - it’s when it gets all quiet and peaceful that I will be worried”. In this there is hope. But with that encouragement (to myself), let me continue.

We are on our way to Christmas; shops will soon have the usual decorations, the malls will have some old guy in a Santa-suite and the usual Christmas movie re-runs will be seen on television. The only thing that is completely out of sync is that Days of Our Lives (now in 2020 I don't even know if this soapy is still running) is not having Christmas because they have already had two this year and Valentine’s Day lasted three weeks. But a usual entry to the Christmas season, no?

Well, no! Usually (and I mean over the past few years) the season has started much earlier and with a much more hype than this year. I’m not sure if it’s just me (maybe this old man needs to get out more), but the past years have seen lavish decorations going up in late October already, TV adverts of all sorts of really useless goodies, magazines full of great gift ideas (the same useless goodies) and generally a lot more expenditure on this publicity. We seem to be entering a much more demure Christmas season this year (as we did back in 2008). In fact, I’m sure one of the department stores down at the mall (in 2008) used the same decorations as last year. I won't be surprised if this is again the case now in 2020.

The global recession actually began back around June (2008) (I am not a stock-watcher, so I might stand corrected in this) and officially the South African press and government acknowledged this around mid-November that year. This year (2020) the pandemic hit around February and South Africa's lockdown commenced on 26th March. The platinum price (2008) is just a few dollars above the gold price; house sales are at what is probably a ten-year low; mining companies are talking about lay-offs; and now in 2020 the country's recession has caused record levels of unemployment. Christmas will not be the same - a quiet Christmas by any standard.

I venture to say that indeed, we are in Hard Times! Perhaps as hard as when I was 4.

What is impressed upon me, though, is how in Hard Times people are drawn to some deeper level of existence. There is a search for meaning, spirituality, and many experience typical existential crises. There is something about Hard Times that seems to demonstrate to the people of this world that their material needs are very secondary to their human existence in an eternal timeframe. So I welcome the Hard Times because it is here we all come to Donovan’s realisation that God, the Universe, or however you relate to "everything", is not yet done with us.

This of course does not make them any the easier to deal with, moment to moment, day to day. But I do find a certain security in just knowing that this is not the first time Hard Times have befallen us. Mr Dickens had his novel published in 1854, I turned 5 in 1970; my daughter turned 21 in 2019. She will remember the Christmas of 2020 but I hope it would have built some confidence in her before the next round of Hard Times dawn.

Hard Times must leave a strong legacy or we have squandered the opportunity they present. They don’t come around too often, so let’s make good use of them.

06 December 2008 (with edits 28 October 2020)