William Faulkner won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature for The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. He considered himself not a man of letters but, as he once said, "I'm just a farmer who likes to tell stories." As the first American novelist to receive the Prize post-World War II, he was speaking during a time of a worldwide fear of atomic warfare and in his acceptance speech said, "Our tragedy today is a general and universal physcial fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question. When will I be blown up?"
William Safire wrote in Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches In History, "...(Faulkner) went to Stockholm and on December 10, 1950 gave a better short speech than most writers write and it proved you didn't have to be a nihilist to be taken seriously you could be affirmative and even optimistic and still be considered gutsy."
Faulkner further said in his speech, "I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice, which have been the glory of his past."
Much as Faulkner's words inspired a generation of writers, so should we take solace in them today as we look at where our future, both personally and from the country's standpoint, is headed. Yes, there is despair and a sense of tragedy in the country about our present day "atomic bomb," i.e. the economic collapse and its subsequent effect on job prospects. However, we live in a country that continually uses innovation to keep us at the forefront of societies around the world. I believe that we will, again, regain our luster as a country. Already, we see signs that the job market is picking up. The sharp rise in Temporary workers in the past several months can be viewed in the positive light that employers discovered they cut jobs too quickly and too much after the surprise Lehman bankruptcy last fall.
I believe the economy is now showing positive economic growth, which should be confirmed when GDP (Gross Domestic Product) numbers are released in coming weeks. The Unemployment Rate lags an economic upturn because as employers hire workers the rate of new workers coming into (or back into) the workforce also rises. Additionally, employers typically remain cautious during the early stages of an economic recovery, not wanting to put on permanent workers because they don't want to be faced with laying them off quickly. Yet, the employer needs workers and has to hire in some manner. So for reasons such as these, the rise in Temporary workers typically can be a signal that permanent job creation is near.
If you are entering the job pool, be persistent, keep a long-term perspective, set goals and keep your head up if you face disappointment. As Safire wrote about Faulkner, be affirmative and optimistic. And as you look around at what others might be doing, don't get discouraged if your outcome is different than them. Keep in mind the words that Faulkner also once wrote, "Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
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