The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Thanksgiving and Gratitude
My posting will be sporadic over this holiday weekend. I will be spending time with my family, who are coming to Texas from all over. Before I lost my grandmother this year, I always looked at these gatherings as more or less just going through the motions. After her death--meaning I have now lost my father and all four grandparents--you begin to see how blind you have been to what Thanksgiving is all about. It isn't about getting through the so-called "boring" moments and the quirkiness which makes every family outing challenging at some level; it is about appreciating every moment--especially the quirky ones.
I count myself to be among the very fortunate in that my family has always stayed with it, through thick and thin, joy and sorrow, the good and the bad. So I am really looking forward to this weekend. When I think of how quickly death can come--through illness, through foul play, through sheer accident, or through terrorism and war--suddenly all of the minutia that comes with petty bickering and personalities that clash with your own don't seem to matter much anymore. So I am looking forward to seeing everyone, enjoying some food and some football and a little shopping too, perhaps. Maybe there will be time for a blog post or two, but I wouldn't bet the house on it.
Still, if you think about it we all have so much to be thankful for: we live in the greatest country ever envisioned by man, over the many billions of years of human experience. Even the poorest members of our society have food, running water, and for the most part cars and color televisions, and family and friends of their own to be thankful for. If you don't think so, you should travel to some of the places I have been. The slums of Mexico City and Brazil. Kingston Jamaica. There are more, but suffice it to say that the poorest in our country would be sitting pretty in over 3/4 of the rest of the globe.
So this weekend, you just might think about closing your eyes, and mentally telling God or Krishna or Allah or Gaia or "the Universe"--or whatever other form the awe in which you hold creation takes--and just say: "thank you." A little gratitude goes a long way.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
I count myself to be among the very fortunate in that my family has always stayed with it, through thick and thin, joy and sorrow, the good and the bad. So I am really looking forward to this weekend. When I think of how quickly death can come--through illness, through foul play, through sheer accident, or through terrorism and war--suddenly all of the minutia that comes with petty bickering and personalities that clash with your own don't seem to matter much anymore. So I am looking forward to seeing everyone, enjoying some food and some football and a little shopping too, perhaps. Maybe there will be time for a blog post or two, but I wouldn't bet the house on it.
Still, if you think about it we all have so much to be thankful for: we live in the greatest country ever envisioned by man, over the many billions of years of human experience. Even the poorest members of our society have food, running water, and for the most part cars and color televisions, and family and friends of their own to be thankful for. If you don't think so, you should travel to some of the places I have been. The slums of Mexico City and Brazil. Kingston Jamaica. There are more, but suffice it to say that the poorest in our country would be sitting pretty in over 3/4 of the rest of the globe.
So this weekend, you just might think about closing your eyes, and mentally telling God or Krishna or Allah or Gaia or "the Universe"--or whatever other form the awe in which you hold creation takes--and just say: "thank you." A little gratitude goes a long way.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
