BE THANKFUL

I recently wrote about being thankful for my relationship with my wife. I was thinking about this earlier: I wouldn't consider myself to be an extraordinarily "gifted" person, but one thing I am definitely gifted with is the ability to appreciate what I have. And to enjoy the moment. I don't remember when I started being this way. 

I do remember, while I was in college during the Gulf War, seeing some senseless fight between two fraternities. One of them was a very jock, wrestling fraternity and the other was Pershing Rifles a fraternity for ROTC students. I was just struck by this particular conflict: I reckoned that most of the jock guys were very politically conservative and that they were mostly guys who were in favorite of the war. Yet, they were fighting the guys most likely to have to go. 

And, I thought, over what? What were these two groups fighting over? It may have been tensions from an intramural game, or just someone looked at someone else's girlfriend or something. In other words, they were fighting over nothing. Something about that really stuck with me, and I thought about how our country is at war, but it hardly effects anyone in our country. I thought maybe things might get worse for us at home, but I was going to appreciate my good fortune while I lived under very favorable conditions. 

Anyway, tonight I watched Neil Young's documentary of Crosby Stills Nash & Young's 2006 tour for Neil's Living With War album. It wasn't just about the tour, it was really about the emotional reaction to it. They did an actual fair, balanced job on the film, it wasn't just "Isn't CSNY great?" But you saw accounts of guys who were there, and people who had lost people to the war. It was extremely moving. 

Coincidentally, earlier in the day, I dropped off my wife at the airport: she's going to Africa for ten days. She does a trip like this every summer. I know the lump I get in my throat when she leaves. And I'll see her in less than two weeks! I can't imagine what the soldiers and their families go through. 

After I watched the film, I walked my dog. It was a beautiful night. I was really grateful for my life in general.