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MinnEcon Blog
Paul Tosto

Your six-word recession: heart wrenching, funny, revealing

Go Deeper.

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You did it. You captured the pain, wry humor and resilience of surviving the Great Recession. In six words (mostly).

You gave us a revealing look at life in Minnesota in this recession. Let's keep it going. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot and describe your recession in six words.

My colleague Molly Bloom was intrigued by these responses from our Network:

"Holding my breath, survivor's guilt, re-evaluating," wrote Shane Baker, a Rochester teacher.

"I've fallen and I can't get back up (yet)," said Todd Lewandoski a former airline pilot from West. St. Paul. "Very profitable airline suddenly closed," he added. "Airline retirement raised from sixty to sixty five combined with the economy means no jobs for at least two more years." He's now pursuing a nursing degree.

Check out the wordle that Steve Mullis, MPR's associate online editor, built from the responses we got from our Network, from the Web site posts and from responses this morning to MPR's Today's Question.

[image]

A wordle creates a visual image where the words that are used most are the largest.

Mullis was struck by two words that ended up fairly prominent: "Back home."

That's been a recurring theme we've heard from the Network during the recession -- adult children, damaged financially in the recession, moving home with parents and relatives.

We've posted on that before. Today, Kerri Miller and the Midmorning program took a deep look at the issue.

Many of the words in the Wordle  need little explanation. Job. Debt. Broke.

But I have to say I was struck by the size of the word "fortunate."

OK, now it's your turn. Sum up your recession in six words. Or you can just post something below.

Here are my six: Surviving on journalism despite average skills.

Below are the responses Mullis found intriguing. Take a look. Are you in there?

"Graduating has never been so terrifying."

"Old job vanished. Fortuitously, new job."

"We don't mind Mac & Cheese."

"I'd like to be Joe Mauer."

"keep crappy job at all costs."

"Me: Poor. You: Same. Us: Exhausted."

NOTE: Our efforts were inspired by SMITH Magazine's ongoing Six-Word Memoir project.