By Kevin Slater, CEO, SoundView Advisors
Last night I was deeply, deliciously asleep. Sometime in the depth of my joy, our nine-year-old daughter, Vivian, tried to wake me. “Daddy, there is a loud sound on the roof.” I rolled over, heard heavy rain, and responded, “it’s just rain, go back to bed” and instantly was asleep.
Some minutes later, another nudge from Vivian stirred me “Daddy, there is a loud sound on my window”. I sat partway up, listened, and with a hint of grumpiness: “honey, it’s just the wind, go back to bed!” and once again was asleep. The visits persisted at regular intervals despite my increasing irritability and less than kind responses.
In my stupor, it finally dawned on me, Vivian was afraid.
As a lifelong Seattleite, she has experienced plenty of rainstorms; but this one seemed different. There were noises that either did not make any sense or she usually associated with danger. She did not know what to expect and she was scared.
I did not know any more than Vivian did about the storm, but I was not scared for two reasons. First, I had experienced big storms before and survived. I knew it was possible we would have tree branches down, surface water, and even a power outage. It was unlikely we would get hurt.
Second, I was confident our general preparations would reduce the impact of the storm. We had cleared the gutters, covered the deck furniture, and stored the miscellaneous items from our yard. While the storm could make a mess and create extra work, it would be less than it would have been.
Vivian needed to know that I cared about her and would work to keep her safe. She did not need data or stories--though those will certainly come at some point! I did not promise her that it would be easy, or there would not be damage or consequences—only that we would face them together. So, I invited her to crawl into my bed, and she was soon asleep.
Our world has experienced a series of “bigger storms” of late. Economic, political, and public health among them. They have felt a little scarier perhaps because they seem to exhibit different characteristics than we are accustomed to seeing. Markets dropping more quickly, political viewpoints expressed more forcefully, contagious diseases which are more deadly.
We have survived many major economic, political, and public health difficulties in the past. Those experiences guide us in how to respond to the current challenges. We cannot prevent storms from happening in the future, but we believe proactive planning will reduce the damage they inflict.
Please let us know what is keeping you up at night. We are here to help you deal with it --although we do prefer to avoid 2 am phone calls.