Thanks

Dear family, friends & readers,

Happy Thanksgiving.

Many of my initial postings, since just after "the election" have been about the unfortunate & unpleasant outcome of that election.  With this post, I want to step back and look at what I have to be thankful for.

The first thing I have to note, is that I'm thankful for having been born in America.  We are fortunate to live in this country.  In many other countries on our planet, we would not be afforded the opportunity to vote freely or to speak our minds freely.  To congregate and protest.  When I think about the conditions that other humans live in, I feel, truly feel fortunate.

I am thankful that we govern ourselves.  Democracy is not always pretty, but it is the best system of government that is or has existed on Earth, from my view.  There are many in our country who are less fortunate than most and there are others in our country who have vast amounts of wealth, but if any one of us were to go and live in one of many less fortunate countries on our planet, for a while, we would see, feel, experience just how thankful we are to live in America.  This is not to say that we don't have a lot to "fix" in our country, but I, for myself, am taking today to get in touch with all that I have that is "good".

I, we live in an amazing time, where technological advances are occurring at such a fast pace.  Let's face it, we Americans love all the "stuff" that we have, and much of that is due to technology.

We live in a time when due to the speed of communication, our planet is shrinking.  Our people on our planet are acting more and more like one planet.  It is not a perfect planet, and that is because we are human and not perfect.  Whatever we are involved with will not be perfect, but the fact (and it is a fact) that our planet is acting in a global way, for the first time in human history, is extraordinary.  We are living during the beginning of a truly global perspective.  My fervent hope is that we continue to move in this global direction.  Due to it, I envision a world where all humans are treated with kindness by other humans, and do not want.

There are many other things I could list, that I am thankful for, but as a friend of mine often says, "it's a good start".

Happy Thanksgiving!