‹ The first American Thanksgivings •
Some things for which to be thankful as we celebrate Thanksgiving:
Families, and spouses and children in particular, as we think about those unfortunates who are alone in nursing homes, in prisons, and under bridges.
The smile of a small child, in which we can catch a glimpse of God’s perfect goodness.
Having a job that allows us not only to live well materially, but to have a life that is intellectually and emotionally fulfilling.
Medical and dental care and the many wonders produced through modern science and technology that free us from the pain and toil that have plagued human beings since the dawn of time.
Living in a country where one need not fear for one’s life, liberty, or property because one was on the losing side of a political campaign.
The members of the armed forces and the peace officers and civilians who work to protect us from violent individuals, domestic or foreign, who seek to do us ill.
Those exceptional human beings who went before us and from whose intellectual, scientific, artistic, and religious patrimony we continue to draw to our incalculable benefit, individually and as a civilization.
Indoor plumbing, particularly when one is sick or on those cold nights, and clean sanitation that alone prevents a great number of diseases that have killed or debilitated untold millions of human beings in the past.
Stores where the food is so varied, healthy, inexpensive and plentiful that the average citizen today eats far better than royalty did during almost all of human history.
Not living in almost any other country or at any other time.
Sources of amusement at one’s fingertips that dispel the mind-numbing boredom that was the common lot of human existence.
Clean, cool water.
And, of course, a benevolent and involved God, Who, by making us in His image, allows us to participate fully in the wonder that is life. Or, if you are otherwise inclined in your beliefs, the felicitous coincidence of a fantastically large number of unimagineably improbable random material causes that allows us to do so.
“The facts of life are conservative.” - Margaret Thatcher
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November 26, 2009 at 7:41 pm
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