Dave Schechter
CNN Senior National Editor

Sometimes I wish I’d finished the economics half of that double major.

Then again, I’m not sure what good it would be doing me now. I mean, these “masters of the universe” have so loused up the economy that even Greenspan and Buffett are left scratching their heads. And if they are befuddled,  what chance do the rest of us have to figure out what’s going on?

I remember the guys in the health club locker room 15 years ago, sitting around watching the cable TV business channels. Occasionally you heard someone cheer, as if he were watching a game.  Those were better days, with more arrows pointing up than down. Now people with 401K’s hesitate to open the envelopes with the monthly statements. The bar charts look stairways to the basement.

Retirement is fast-becoming a  foreign word, something chuckled about with friends. “I think I’ll be working forever,” a veteran nurse sighed the other night, as we watched our sons’ high school soccer game.

I collect information about the economy and its impact from around the country, to share with colleagues as we prepare reports for CNN. When we talk about the economy, the forest of bad news cannot be avoided but within it there are trees of, if not good news, at least people coping.

You find people who have lost their jobs and gone back to school to learn new skills for jobs in  promising industries, such as health care. You meet people becoming entrepreneurs, starting their own businesses. Still others have found new jobs, but at lower wages. But there also are a lot of people who have lost jobs and dropped off the economic radar.

My standard for a complicated story used to be the former Yugoslavia. Keeping track of the ethnic and religious divisions in that country required serious study, particularly as that fragile union disintegrated and descended into war. Well, Yugoslavia seems easy compared with the machinations of derivatives and credit default swaps.

So, in these troubled times, where do you go to find wisdom? Maybe we’re making things too complicated.

I offer you the following excerpt from the script of “Being There,” the 1979 movie featuring Peter Sellers as “Chance,” the simple-minded, but well-meaning gardener. In this scene the character whose name is misunderstood to be Chauncey Gardiner is engaged in conversation with the President of the United States and Ben Rand, the wealthy businessman who takes Chance into his home:

President: Do you agree with Ben, Mr. Gardiner? Or do you think we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?

Chance: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and all will be well in the garden.

President: In the garden?

Chance: That is correct. In a garden, growth has its season. There is spring and summer, but there is also fall and winter. And then spring and summer again . . .

President: Spring and summer . . . (looking confused for a moment) Yes, I see . . . Fall and winter (smiles at Chance) Yes, indeed.

Rand: (interrupts) I think what my most insightful friend is building up to, Mr. President, is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, yet we are upset by the seasons of our economy.

Chance: Yes. That is correct. There will be growth in the spring.

President: (looking pleased) Well, Mr. Gardiner, I must admit, that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time.
(he rises) I envy your good, solid sense, Mr. Gardiner – that is precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill.
(glances at his watch) I must be going.
(holds out hand to Chance) . . . This visit has been most enlightening . . .

Hey, it makes about as much sense as a lot of what passes for wisdom these days.