The Business Press is offering a daily online editorial, opinion, commentary – or, as one of our writers dubbed it, “whatever.” Several editors take turns coming up with it. The first one, on the woes of the Permian Basin, will be difficult to top.
Our editor Bob Francis, long one of the top energy writers in Texas, wrote about the sharp decline in oil prices caused by the feud between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The fight has caused a near shutdown of production in the Permian Basin, which up to this point had been a source of great financial growth for Texas.
No sooner had the commentary run than a reader phoned to tell us there are companies in the Permian Basin that have been slowing down, stockpiling cash, and waiting for something such as this. Those companies, he said, will now try to buy – at bargain-basement prices – leases, equipment and other assets from hard-hit companies.
When the oil economy cycles back, he said, they will be in a position to profit and grow from this latest change.
And that’s the way it goes with these things. Just as with the many economic setbacks caused by the coronavirus, there will individual and business losses and then there will be gains in some of the same areas.
We are not being critical. It’s just the way things work out.
Reminds us of the wonderful quote from the late John Wooden, famed basketball coach at UCLA: “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
This is a time when we must turn inward and outward at the same time. We turn inward to find strength to fight on, to take inventory of those things that really matter. We plumb the depths of faith, we rearrange our priorities, we focus on those we love and especially those who love us back. We forget and forgive, and we look for the silver lining in the cloud hovering darkly above us. We turn outward to help the other guy, be kind, give thanks, be grateful – and, to quote Wooden, “make each day your masterpiece.”
The last of these may seem hard to do but, let’s face it, life is hard. Sometimes it’s full of joy, sometimes it’s full of misery. Most of the time it’s somewhere in between.
It’s not always easy to see it that way but we all can do it.
– FWBP