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George Grossmith as "Ko-Ko" in Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado." Think "The flowers that bloom in the spring tra-la…"

A grim winter day in New England is never the best time to learn about bad news, especially the economic kind that sinks one’s very heart. A friend had that experience when she was told that the garden center in which she works is being closed for the winter. The main office is still going to be open, and seeds will be planted, but the retail operation, which supplies our area with pots, houseplants, birdseed, and cards, will be shut from January until spring. And my friend has no work for those months.

That’s hard for most people, but especially hard for her. With two children and a husband who already works two jobs, the economic impact in her household is not going to be easy. And she’s not the only person I know who is suffering in this economy: a colleague in my own workplace has had to take a second job after a separation from her spouse because her full-time work (after nearly five years with our organization) doesn’t pay her enough to make ends meet.

Soup kitchens are struggling in our area. So are land trusts. So are animal shelters and libraries. These are all organizations I care deeply about and support when I can, and they serve my community in important ways. But we also need an organization to help people like my friends, people who have work, are willing to work, and who make a difference in the places where they work. In this society, however, I’m not sure what organization could fill that role.

My writing revolves around the Victorian world, and my characters are often economically disadvantaged. In my completed historical novel, one of my protagonists muses about the marvelous feeling of truly good tea in his mouth and wonders if the wealthy people who can regularly afford it ever realize what it really tastes like. It’s been hard for me as a writer not to have a wealthy person swoop down and make my characters’ lives better, just as it’s hard for me as a person with scant disposable income to hear of my friends’ struggles, like to many others in the U.S. these days, and know of so few options to help them. We simply must hope, and, like my characters, keep trying to find a way to hold happiness close to our hearts. It’s not always easy, but may this new year justify not simply hope but happiness for those who work to make this world a better place.