Giving Thanks

I am working on another more serious piece, but I wanted to get something up before I gorged myself on Thanksgiving dinner and found myself too full and too tired to write. The smells emanating from my kitchen tonight are a warning that I will in fact eat too much food, my husband is the chef in the family but I can eat like nobodies business.

I want to give thanks this year for many things, some of which I gave thanks for last year and some that are new. I will spare you the sappy appreciation I have for my family and friends and get to what may be relevant to you. I give thanks that I have a voice and that I am able to use it every day. I give thanks for the fact I can still express my opinion without fear of running afoul of the law. It is true that my opinions may cost me, but any attempt to stop my words would be illegal under the system in which we live. I realize that for someone like Jose Padilla, the law may not be worth much, but it still means that they are wrong and we are right, even if we sit in a jail cell with that knowledge.

I am thankful that there are so many good people in the world. We may not know what to do with our goodness at times, but it shines nonetheless. I am most thankful right this minute for the technology that has allowed for another kind of tribe to be possible. Where we used to be thrown together by geography, we are now able to come together based on a common ideology. The world will keep spinning and horrible things will continue to happen to good people, but by being connected and sharing our experiences and our thoughts, we can transcend what our leaders do. We no longer have to be perceived solely based on what our countries do to one another, but we can judge and be judged as individuals, joined together around the world by our common beliefs, our common ideals and our common dream of what is possible.