Here’s My List. What’s Yours?
God, it’s been a while. I know I have been bitching a lot recently. I know mine are luxury problems. I could be starving. I could be unemployed. I could be homeless and drunk.
So here are ten things that I am sincerely grateful for, in no particular order.
- My daughter is going to college in the fall. I love her to death (really sweetie you know that I do) but 18 year-old girls are a challenging species. There were some moments we weren’t sure she’d graduate. Now it looks like she is going to make it, actually work over the summer, and on August 28th start college (but who’s counting?)
- My friend Brian. We were college roommates together a quarter century ago and have always lived on opposite coasts. Most marriages don’t last that long. Guy friendships are a rare thing, I have discovered. But we are still as comfortable hanging out doing nothing as we were when we were 18. I need that.
- The wonder of a 7 year-old. “Why do they burn the bodies of the good guys on Star Wars,” Cole asked me on the way home from school today. A long discussion of the cycle of life followed in which I talked about how we all come from the earth and return to it and he jumped to the conclusion, “now I get it that’s why you bury people!”
- Chelsea Lately. I know it’s amazingly stupid, but along with yoga (which I no longer do much of) watching that silly show is the one thing that makes my brain turn totally off. The monkeys don’t bother me. Chuy, Lonnie, and Ross Matthews just make me laugh. Good for the soul.
- Spring. I’m staring at green leaves against a blue sky right now. It’s pretty gorgeous.
- A 16 year-old son dedicated to faith and service. Honestly I don’t know where my boy (not really a boy any more as he is over six feet) got it, but he lives his life by the motto, “Be a man for others.” Those aren’t just words to him. I see he truly lives it in ways that are beyond anything that I can imagine. So I just watch in awe and gratitude.
- My bike. In middle age you need to move on from sports that jar the body. I’ve always been a swimmer. But in recent years I’ve become a devoted biker. I ride a lot on this wicked cool carbon fiber bike I got a while back for writing a story about Seven Cycles. I ride with Brian when I’m on the West Coast. But in Boston, I ride alone down the country roads in Lincoln and Weston and Concord. And love it.
- My friend Elliott. Some friendships are born of success and some of complete and utter failure. Elliott and I met because we both had hit a brick wall in life. A decade later he’s a dad and husband who lives around the corner from me. I love him like a brother. Most Friday mornings we meet up at Peet’s to hug and laugh and talk heart-to-heart. He’s the most enthusiastic human being I know. And I love him for it.
- The feeling of my wife in my arms. The older I get the more I realize that there are certain things that are beyond comprehension. And certain things that are grounding, soothing to the nervous system. Holding my wife is at the center of my life. I can’t explain it. It just is.
- My health. I suffered from weird chronic fatigue syndrom in my 20s when I thought I was going to die. I did plenty of damage to myself as a young man. There’s no reason that at 47 I feel as good as I do. I am graced.
That’s all I got today.
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Alleged nameless some guy may have known how to write catchy soundbites, but he clearly wasn’t skilled in accuracy.
I wouldn’t write him off so quickly.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell
I am thankful for Daniel Ellsberg, Bradley Manning if he is the hero he is accused of being, Wikileaks, Joe Darby and every other individual and organization who have risked their freedom and safety to expose abuses committed by government and its agents. I am also thankful for all of the conscientious objectors who have refused to be paid to commit or to be bullied into harming or killing innocent human beings just because government asked or ordered them to do so. And I am thankful for organizations such as Antiwar.com that stand as voices of sanity in a world… Read more »
“I am also thankful for all of the conscientious objectors who have refused to be paid to commit or to be bullied into harming or killing innocent human beings just because government asked or ordered them to do so.” I agree that dissent is an important component of the political process in that it keeps our government accountable for its actions. However, portraying the issue in such categorical terms presents an inaccurate picture at best. While part of being a soldier means forgoing one’s political voices to obey the directives of our political leadership, this does not make them butchers… Read more »
That’s all you got? What you got is pretty good. You left four things out but perhaps you’re too close to see them.
1. Wisdom.
2. Self-awareness.
3. Empathy.
4. Humility
Enjoy the weekend and best to your family.