If ever we needed a day completely devoted to giving thanks, it’s right now.
We do have a lot to be thankful for, even if we have to dig deep to find it. And hopefully on January 20, 2021 we will have so much more to be thankful for.
I’m not talking about the easy stuff. We’re all thankful for our friends or families, even if we had to choose our families and let the unchosen family go. If you are reading this, you have access to the internet, so it’s highly likely that you have a roof over your head of some kind. I’m thankful that Michael has a job that not only allows but requires him to work from home, which he has been doing for about seven years now, so he can continue to work without putting himself at risk.
All those things are low hanging fruit. I want us to dig deep and find a way to be thankful for the shit show and the chaos and even the pandemic, all of which are quite literally raging through the US at this very moment.
I am thankful that we have been able to see with incredible clarity the corruption and grift that has been ruling politics for . . . impossible to say how many years for certain, but I’m betting well over a century.
I’m thankful that 2016 brought us this parody of a president who was able to open our eyes to the failings of our culture. We were exposed to a whole world most of us never realized was out there, the disgusting, perfectly worthless lifestyles of the obscenely greedy. The total lack of a moral compass, the complete lack of conscience, the inability to understand what empathy even is, let alone what it’s for, or why it is essential to our survival as a species.
These people are killing us, and I’m thankful that those of us who do have empathy will never be able to un-see that again.
I’m thankful that this pandemic is teaching us how much some of our elected representatives really value us – some not at all, some quite a lot. I know which ones I’m going to continue to support in future elections.
I’m also thankful that the pandemic is teaching us how to protect ourselves, even from ordinary colds and flus in the future. Masks are becoming a cool accessory, a new form of self-expression. I actually think people look weird without a mask now. Even after this thing is beaten, I’m gonna keep wearing a mask during cold and flu season, because it’s a great way to protect yourself from all kinds of crap.
I’m asking you to dig deep and take a hard look at the things that aren’t pretty and aren’t easy, and find a way to be grateful anyway. For example: I’m grateful to my ex-husband for giving me the ability to see and feel immediately when I am being manipulated or gaslit. Never again. I am grateful that he served as the anvil that turned me into a sword, and I honor that lesson with all I am. That doesn’t mean we can ever be friends, but it means I sleep better for having let go of the anger.
This is not an effortless process. It’s downright hard to find things you can personally be grateful for in times of chaos and pain. You have to be willing to see a far, far bigger picture and play a much longer game. You have to turn things upside down, look at them reflected back at you from a whole different perspective. It takes time, but that’s what we have – or should have right now if we’re honestly doing what must be done to fight this virus.
I hope you’re staying home for Thanksgiving, taking care of you and your immediate few and not risking your own health or the health of others to make a long journey during this insanely dangerous time. I hope you aren’t going shopping on Friday, going into crowds and risking the health of strangers as well as your own. I hope you are staying home, and that you can be thankful for the opportunity to spend some time looking at everything you have to be thankful for in these impossible times.
Be safe, be strong, be empathetic. We’re going to get through this.