It’s Thanksgiving today in the United States, so here are 25 things (big and small) that I’m grateful for:
1++. My family (Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃)
2++. My friends (Happy Thanksgiving! 🍁)
3. My bed: at some point in my 20s I invested in a good one (it has a memory foam-type thing) and frankly thank god that past-me was wise enough to cough up the cash
4. That I was born at a time where we understand the germ-theory of disease, have microscopes, and for modern medicine in general
5. For running water in houses! And sewers! Both of which I usually take for granted but without which things would be so much more unpleasant
6. American washing machines and dryers: reliable and efficient. The fact that I can take clean clothes for granted and don’t have to hang my clothes to dry each day like in other countries with weaker dryers (or countries without either!) is a gift.
7. That our sun is not a neutron star or a black hole or whatever it is that will become…
8. That neutron stars exist - how are they real?!
9. That lions, hippos, wildebeest and zebras are just chilling in the Serengeti right now and that they have been every single day of my life without a care in the world for any of my troubles.
10. Hops water - what a grand invention!
11. Fine-tipped gel pens from Japan
12. Lasik: after using glasses all my life, a doctor used a laser on my eyes to correct my vision and in less than a day - poof! I can see without glasses! What magic!
13. My cat: having a cat makes hanging out in your house much more fun - a furry little creature sneaks around and then suddenly appears in a room and causes mischief - mrow!
14. Airports and airplanes: first off what an amazing invention that didn’t exist basically all of human history and now lets us explore and connect in ways unimaginable… Just a few generations ago this was a dream! And also that we invented airplanes at a time when we still were societally flexible enough to carve out huge chunks of land and dedicate them to this endeavor close to our major metropolis.
16. Disney! Living in a pre-Disney world would be much less fun not just for the Disney characters but more generally for the concept that playful fun is something that is permissible for adults as well as kids
17. For the roof over my head
18. That I live in a country without war
19. A globalized food chain and the economies that support it that can lets me buy fresh fruits and vegetables from half-way across the world at low prices even during the winter
20. That right now, as I type this, I’m not sick
21. That we seem to have figured out how to live with atomic weapons without constantly being worried that it’s all going to fall apart like people did in the 1950s
22. The Internet!!
23. That I live at a time and place where I can learn about buddhism just by opening up my computer and typing words into a box
24. Matcha Mizudashi!
25. Coffee!!
26. That I can write these words for free and others can then respond in kind :)
27. And that sometimes, if I stop and really pay attention, I can recognize that everything is a gift.
Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃