Thursday, December 22, 2011

What I Am Most Thankful For

Everyone is writing their “What am I thankful for” blog this time of year.  OK, many  did it last month for Thanksgiving.  But it’s one big holiday until after New Year’s Day.  Sorta’ like the massive urban area from Boston to Washington D.C.  Bos-wash, they call it.  I guess the last two months of the year could be called New Thanksmas Day.

What am I thankful for?  Everyone’s already written about their family and health and friends etc, etc.  I’m thankful for all those things, too, as much as anyone.  But I am also thankful for some things other bloggers rarely mention.

I’m thankful for days.  If Earth always faced towards the sun, we’d have no nights.  How boring would life be then?

I’m thankful for seasons.  I know there are people who love the constancy of the Florida’s or southern California’s never-changing weather.  Not me.  Give me four seasons.  I love my snow, as much as I love the warm summer evenings.  I just don’t want either year ‘round.

I am thankful for trees.  And flowers and shrubs and everything else on our planet that makes oxygen.  I am thankful for the ants and the bugs that live in the trees and on other plants.  Their constant pressure on the trees’ health has made them strong enough that some live for thousands of years.  Only the need to get stronger against adversity can cause that.

I am pretty much thankful for everything that Mother Earth, in her wisdom, chose to put on this planet.

There are some things I’m not so thankful for.  Don’t care much for asparagus.   Persimmons are OK, but only if you catch them for those four hours each year that they are ripe. 

I could certainly do without any GMO’d foods.  Yes, yes, I KNOW that they have massively increased the yield of many important food crops.  But for the most part, they are not particularly healthy foods.  And they mostly allow us to feed more cows and other livestock, the farming/ranching of which is a major cause of the degradation of our environment.  And I wish to heck that all those global warming doubters would pull their heads out and get an effing’ clue!

I am absolutely NOT thankful for bullies, drivers who think road laws don’t apply to them, people who text (or read or put on makeup) while driving, or born-again Christians.  I have nothing against Christianity; heck, some of my best friends are Christians.  I have a problem with anyone who says there is only “one way” for anything.  There are seven billion people on this planet.  They can’t all fit on the same path.

Mostly I’m pretty thankful about stuff.  Mostly natural stuff.  The things that most bothers me in this universe are usually things we humans have created.