Thanksgiving

I’m first of all thankful that I woke up this morning, alive, reasonably healthy, and all of my unnumbered days still awaiting me. I’m thankful, as I am nearly every day, that I woke up an American, the most imperfectly perfect community humans have thus far devised. I’m thankful that the poverty level here is so high (and I’ll be lucky to just scratch past that line this year) that it means I have to buy my headphones at Family Dollar instead of Staples, that I can only buy NY strip when it’s on sale, that I can only buy one or two songs a month online instead of a whole album and must content myself with hundreds of free pod casts, that because I can’t afford to fix my car (or, more properly, I can’t afford to insure it) I have to walk to my job, my college, my grocery store, my movie theater, my convenience stores, and my friends’ houses. I’m thankful that being poor in the United States only rarely means hunger, homelessness, and early death. Poor in the US almost never means lack of opportunity.
I’m thankful that I have friends who are more than willing to let me put my foot in my mouth. Friends who offer me rides when it’s cold, raining, even snowing. Friends who put up with me are pretty impressive people.
I’m thankful my parents are still alive. I’m thankful my sister and I only grow closer every year. I’m thankful I have a nephew, who’s just as strange as the rest of us.
I’m thankful there are more people alive than there have ever existed (despite all the problems that entails.)
I’m thankful that no matter what horrible things are happening at this very moment, there are far, far more kind, generous, selfless, and wonderful things happening as well.