Complex Numbers

Putting the Attitude Back in Gratitude

I have to admit I've been dreading this one all month.

PROMPT November 25^th

We all have something to be thankful about. In the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving today. Tell us what you are most thankful for.

It's not that I'm not thankful. It's that I have a visceral aversion to talking about it.

Even right now, it's difficult. I've written and then deleted several sentences already, because none of them seemed quite right to me.

And the temptation is definitely there to turn the prompt to something humorous. I'm going to go ahead and give in to that urge by linking to a special Thanksgiving poem I wrote a few years ago:

Alcohol, Hookers, and Blow  (18+) A Thanksgiving thanks giving #2175291 by Robert Waltz

Well. Now that that's out of the way, what am I actually most thankful for? Despite the poem's title and content, I've never been with a hooker or done blow (that's cocaine, for anyone not used to US slang). Alcohol, yes, sure, but is it really what I'm most thankful for?

I'm in a pretty good place in life. Not without problems, of course; everyone has problems. But overall, things are pretty good for me right now. There's a downside to that, though, which is that it gives me no incentive to try to improve my situation further, because any move I make to improve could backfire and make things worse. So while I'm thankful for all the beneficial things in my life, that wouldn't be the top of the list.

I suppose when it comes right down to it, the thing I'm most thankful for is existence itself. That may be a kind of cop-out -- after all, if I didn't exist, I wouldn't be here to experience gratitude. But I think that, by itself, is enough reason to be thankful. And it's not just my existence I'm talking about, either. No one can exist without reference to what's around them: air, water, sunlight, people, whatever.

I'm not doing anything for Thanksgiving this year. Well, not exactly. It's traditional to eat turkey, so I bought a frozen turkey pie to eat later. And nothing goes with turkey as perfectly as Beaujolais Nouveau, a delicious red wine that gets shipped here every year from France just in time for Thanksgiving (so thanks for that, France). So yeah, I'm going to be a cliché single person, eat the pie, and drink the bottle of wine. Probably while watching TV shows. Some might consider that pathetic. I do not. It is far less stressful than having to deal with other people.

After that, I'll go out to see a movie, because I can.

Existence? Maybe I spoke too soon. I think what I should be most thankful for is not having to abide by others' schedules and preferences. I get to do exactly what I want to today, not what other people think I should do.

And for that, I am truly grateful.