“What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?”
~ Erma Bombeck
Why else, indeed?
This is the official Thankful Thursday.
We’re all thankful for health, wealth, love and friendship, roofs over our heads, food on our tables, peace in our time. (Well, maybe not today. It is the day we spend with family, after all. Somebody’s bound to have a fight.)
My official Thanksgiving gratitude list probably looks a lot like yours. I don’t have kids—and you may. You might not have a new sofa—and I do. Our different jobs are at different stages of success. Our bones are creaking more or less loudly depending on our different ages. Some of us live in colder states than others. Some of us even live under various different systems of government in different countries.
Some of us have had wonderful luck this year, and some of us have faced hardship and sadness. Some of us might even have trouble thinking of something for which to be thankful today.
So, let’s take a moment, just a moment, to remember this.
Now.
In this moment.
If you are reading this.
You are one of the luckiest people on earth.
870 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. *
780 million people lack access to fresh water.**
Almost half the world, over 3 billion people, live on less than $2.50 a day.***
More than 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV.****
There have been bombs dropping in Israel and Gaza for over a week.
Let’s not even talk about the Sudan.
Just, in general, the mere fact of having a computer, electricity, running water, something for dinner, puts us way ahead of far too many people.
Sure, we’ve all got problems and things that make us unhappy.
Let us be thankful, however, that so many of them are First World problems.
Enjoy the food, the family and the fights.
Enjoy your luck.
Happy Thanksgiving. (Someday, for everybody.)
*** Water
**** UNAIDS
