Coldplay - Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground
It's the fourth Thursday of the eleventh month in America. Everyone knows it as Thanksgiving, and in elementary schools, they are told valiantly of pilgrims and turkeys and something or the other involving the Native Americans. All of the nice stuff. Charlie Brown's holiday specials start up and an impressively massive parade is held in the heart of New York City. Turkeys, geese, hogs and cows are slathered with enticing broth and surrounded in a sea of sustenance no one would ever dare to prepare for any other occasion.
Thanksgiving.
We learned it as a time of giving thanks, a preparation for the following, holiday season. It's a trigger to something we should already be alert and exercising.
I could find a plethora of things to complain about. I could find the misery in everything, and I could let it defeat me just as easily as it is working upon those around me, but there would be no point to it all. If I intended to drive my face into the dirt after every time I was forced back onto my own, two feet, I would merely destroy myself until I had shattered into pieces.
It's a vice that any human, especially within my generation, can intentionally or unintentionally abuse. We shouldn't gather around a table with people we haven't spoken to in months or even years, pretend to make amends, and then resume the year-long grudge or negligence. Losing touch is common, but there's a lot of energy and effort put into trying to make sure someone else knows that you detest them or that everyone should know how difficult your means of existence is.
It takes a while and it's a rough journey, but if there are things you most certainly are thankful for, the Tree of Life will turn up its leaves, despite the season of Autumn, and lessen the harsh rays of sun on your eyes; and shield you from the downpour of rain; and buffet the chilly winds of the sky, and be your stable support to get back on your feet.
You'll find your feet underneath you again.
Life is an interesting thing, isn't it? We always make it much bigger than us, always put it out of our own control, because we believe it is. But there are the variables that jar our social orders, that maim our perceptions of Life - the bad things make us think ill of Life and the good make us believe well of Life. All in all, our decisions, our opportunities, and our interactions determine what kind of Life becomes attracted to us.
Just as fascinating is the notion that there are individuals who are existing, thriving heartily through conditions we, as thankful, able Americans, could never imagine. Harsher politics, disgusting poverty, permanent handicaps - unfathomable to nearly all of my friends, I'm sure.
I occasionally imagine the life of a deaf, blind, or mute individual. I admire those physically handicapped and revere those mentally handicapped. They endure more judgement than they should ever deserve in their lives, only because it is in a form amplified from the judgement people cast at one another. I admittedly resolve that if I could trade places with a blind person to let them see, or with a deaf person to let them hear, or with a mute person to let them speak, I most certainly would.
But we complain at the newest piece of technology that is on the television that we urgently might need, that our current piece of communicating is obsolete and that everything in our immediate vicinity is against us. It's an honest truth that teenagers would rarely admit as much as they'd acknowledge it. Adults, on the other hand, find their issues within the communication between another individual or even with the obligations expected of them.
I do not have the answer to every dilemma - never have, never will - but there are ideals that may be better and beneficial than our current approach.
I am thankful that I am me.
I am thankful for all of the individuals in my life; the people who I've met once, the people who I see everyday, the people I've known for a week, and the people I've known for my lifetime. Each and every one, no matter the degree or angle of our interaction, helped mold me into who I am today. I always anticipate returning the favor to some degree, though there is only so much I can do for everyone else.
I am thankful for my family. Making everything in my life as difficult as it never should need to be, stretching me as thin as I should never dare - they have prepared me and rounded me into a human being who is willing and acceptable and great. Grateful, even.
I am thankful for my friends. I have different associations, a different relationship with each one, and I would never trade anything in the world for it. Unless I was then capable of making it even better for my friend.
I am thankful for my life. My capabilities, my talents, my flaws, my mind, my heart, my body, my soul. My personality, my features, my favorites, my interests. My home, my neighborhood, my neighbors, my schoolings, my path. My instructors, my associates, my past/present/future experiences.
I am thankful for being here each day. For being able to show my worth to those who will either appreciate it or fuel even more of a resolve and gain my respect with it. For having people on either side of me, behind me, and before me - for having a purpose and having a destination.
I am thankful for being able to complain. I am thankful for being able to distract myself from the task at hand. I am thankful for being able to lose my focus. I am thankful for being able to fall down on my knees and for being able to weep when I lose all my wits about me. I am thankful for being able to fight without weapons, for being able to make peace without words.
I am thankful for being greater than all the things I own.
I am thankful for being my mother's man and my father's son - for being my brothers' brother and my sisters' sibling - for being my cousins' cousin and my aunts and uncles' nephew - for being my grandparents' grandson and for being my nephew's uncle.
I am thankful that I am me, indeed, every day of my life.
I am thankful for you and who you are, for without you, the world - this Life - would be missing a crucial component.
I am thankful that I am me, indeed, for I would never rather be anyone else.
Happy Thanksgiving, world. Let's be thankful for more than just the things we can count on our fingers or name around the room - or just name, in general.
Thank you. =]
<3 ~ Monty.
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