Photo by Donald Giannatti on Unsplash
Gratitude is all the rage these days — even if some of it is just lip service.
It should be the rage. There are a plenitude of things for which we should be grateful. Pausing periodically to acknowledge what we have to be grateful for is a practice we could all be more intentional about.
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As a for instance — I am grateful my wife is okay with me cutting my own hair. I am grateful she is willing to be seen with me in public even during the early stages when my hair is still reacting as if I stuck my finger in an electrical socket.
And while some scalp segments are — quite obviously — asymmetrical. Fortunately for me, no one bats an eyelash at asymmetrical haircuts these days. In addition, I got two thumbs up from a shaggy-haired nine-year old.
Of course, I am grateful I still have hair with which to mangle with my George Clooney-endorsed Flowbee mangler.
But enough being blithe.
Here are some things for which I am grateful…
I am grateful for my modicum of health. My girth and stamina took a hit due to the pandemic and my brush with the medical system but I am feeling pretty good all things considered.
I am grateful for my loving and caring wife. She’s the reason I smile when I wake up and I smile when my head hits the pillow.
I am grateful for my extensive network of friends and family. Nary a day goes by that I don’t receive a message of goodwill, greetings or casual updates.
I am grateful I still have a sense of humor and an ounce of optimism because — man! — the daily blizzard of nonsense, audaciousness, misery and malice is relentless.
We — and by we, I mean those of us who aren’t living in war zones, aren’t living unhoused, aren’t being held somewhere against our will, aren’t living under martial law, aren’t trapped by circumstances beyond our ability to affect, aren’t debilitated by drug addictions or health issues — have much to be grateful.
Our role is to be beacons.
Beacons of hope.
Beacons of kindness.
Beacons of sanity.
Beacons of goodwill.
Beacons of understanding.
So, why do I wake up to a story about female Israeli soldiers posing for a selfie at the border of Israel and a bombed out neighborhood in Gaza?
APTOPIX Israel Palestine (Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
The article attributes their behavior to young people having to have photographic evidence, or something never happened. The image causes me to think about big game hunters kneeling in front of an animal that never had a chance. Why is being tasteless no longer embarrassing?
A young climate activist angrily — and profanely — interrupts a senator giving a talk at Harvard. When it comes to climate care, this senator from West Virginia deserves the public’s ire. The coal industry made him rich and will make him richer after he heads out to political pasture. However, berating the man, publicly, while he’s in a educational meeting does nothing to further the cause.
These two examples of the slow, but steady, corrosion of comity are worrying.
The young climate activist’s passion would be better served getting out the vote, haranguing people to sign petitions, encouraging his peers to get engaged in the political process, even standing on a soapbox in the Main Square of Wheeling, West Virginia preaching. Yelling in the face of a politician whose financial health preclude him from caring about the environment is tantamount to yelling at a dog for licking it’s balls.
As for the Israeli soldiers — I know it’s war — but they could have taken their keepsake photo in a thousand other locales and seemed far less raffish.
I am unimaginably grateful Wayne LaPierre has been ousted from the National Rifle Association beneath a cloud of corruption. Not that it will make any difference while America’s responsible gun owners and NRA members keep their heads firmly planted in the sand ignoring how they’re represented. Responsible gun owners and NRA adherents are the ONLY way America will ever make headway regulating firearms in any meaningful way.
Take a look at America and the NRA over the course of the LaPierre era:
The Wayne LaPierre production was a powerful tool, and the N.R.A. used it to transform the country. Permits to carry concealed handguns, once extraordinarily difficult to obtain, became easy to get; today, most states don’t require a permit to carry at all. Stand Your Ground laws swept the nation. Firearms continued their encroachment into public spaces. The AR-15 and its relatives proliferated; more than twenty million of them are now in the hands of Americans. The federal government enacted a law that protected the gun industry from most liability lawsuits, let the assault-weapons ban lapse, and failed to expand background checks to all gun sales. The Supreme Court affirmed the individual right to own a firearm, and directed lower courts to ignore public-safety considerations when reviewing regulations. Mass shootings became commonplace. Republicans, en masse, took an absolutist position on the Second Amendment, transforming the issue of guns into a political purity test.
Mike Spies is a senior writer at The Trace and a 2017 Livingston Awards finalist.
Mr. LaPierre will be another “elitist” caught with his hand in the cookie jar, causing more ill than goodwill, who will someday die a very wealthy man despite his criminal/civil conviction. As Bob Dylan once crooned:
Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you a king.
I’ve come to the conclusion the ethos of that phrase has been enthusiastically embraced by those who elect to be scofflaws in our modern culture. I’m thinking Fyre Festival guy, Theranos lady, Bob Menendez, practically every member of the GOP and — certainly — the ‘black hole’ of journalism of the past decade, the human train wreck no one can turn their attention away from, the morbidly obese faux billionaire and one-time BFF to Jeffery Epstein, Benedict Donald.
I’m grateful for those who are doing all they can to see that justice is served. It’s deflating and disturbing to watch the perversion of our justice system in real-time. Real-very slow-time. Real-glacial movement-time. It’s deflating and disturbing to watch insurrectionists receive the equivalent of a slap across the face with a handkerchief, or nothing at all. Deflating and disturbing to see the ease with which courts can be manipulated. The ease with which money can postpone justice — perhaps — indefinitely.
I’m still grateful for those who are hanging on to the idea that no one’s above the law. No matter how many threats, no matter how much prestige, no matter how much money, no matter how much political capital.
As for the Make America Great Again, wrap yourself in the American flag cultists, Dylan had this to say in the verse that came just before the one I quoted above:
Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings…
I really wanted to spit this column out — thus the incoherence — because I wanted to direct y’all’s attention to a worthy campaign/project happening in Bend, Oregon. The creator is a friend of my niece’s, and what she’s doing is truly worthy. It’s called the Companion Animal Medical Project or CAMP.
Please take a few moments to watch the promotional video and, if so moved, do what you can.
I am most definitely grateful for people like Johannah Johnson-Weinberg and her cohorts.
Also, more gratitude talk. Found this in Psychology Today which was once an esteemed magazine. It’s probably owned by Disney or Rupert Murdoch these days. Who knows? I don’t know about #7. Sounds like it was thrown in there as some kind of token bonus. There’s more in the complete article. Check it out:
12 Benefits of Practicing Gratitude in Everyday Life
Here are some of the many benefits that people experience when they leave negativity behind and cultivate an attitude of gratitude:
More energy
Better sleep
Better physical health
More enthusiasm
A greater sense of optimism
Deeper empathy
Greater popularity
A higher level of success in every realm (professional and academic achievement, money-making, friendship, parenting, relationship-building)
Greater resilience, better capacity to overcome setbacks
Enhanced mindfulness
A deeper sense of contentment
More happiness
Or — better yet — send a donation to CAMP. - JLM
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