THANKSGIVING 2006
A person whose opinion I value writes:
“You're a middle class American living better than 99 percent of the world and enjoying luxuries unimaginable even half a century ago. Perhaps you're focused on what you don't have - not on what you do - ask yourself whether this is healthy or unhealthy to think this way.”
Okay, I have running water and electricity but then so do probably all of my elementary school classmates. And my high school, undergraduate school and graduate school classmates. Plus, some of them are more attractive than I am, married to attractive men, have more money and more prestigious jobs than I do. And looking at what I had to be thankful for in 2003 when I first started blogging and last year I have less and less for which to be thankful every year. (I didn’t list anything in 2004 as I was still getting over my father’s death.
This is what I had to be thankful for three years ago:
1) Both my parents and my grandmother are alive and in reasonably good health.
2) I am reasonably healthy, even if I don't always feel good, I at least have the strength (willpower?) to drag myself from one job to another. Even though I am paying $309 per month out of pocket for health insurance, it allows me to go to any doctor or hospital I want to, and I can use it as a tax deduction.
3) I have enough food to eat, and don't have to rely on a food bank, even though I make the wrong choices and eat too much junk food/convenience food.
4) I have a roof over my head in a neighborhood a lot of people would kill to live in, and I pay an absurdly low amount to live there. Even though my condo looks awful now, someday I will get my act together.
5) Even though I have to work three jobs, I am working at one of the top ten stations in a top ten market. Some people would do my job for free.
6) My pigs.
7) Home equity lines of credit and 0% APR credit cards, which I ditch as soon as the APR goes up.
8) Technology which allows me to start my holiday shopping early without leaving my computer, get cash in the middle of the night on a holiday, put gas in my car without dealing with an attendant, refill my prescriptions, which improve my life, by phone, talk to relatives hundreds of miles away while I'm in my car and reheat the mashed potatoes in a plastic bowl within seconds.
This is what I had to be thankful for last year:
That no family members or pigs have died within the last four months.
That Mom and her siblings and Dad’s four sisters are all in reasonably good health.
That Mom’s cat and my pigs are healthy.
That I am healthy even though I have to drag myself out of bed.
That I have a place to live and will for about the next 27 or 28 years. I do not have to answer classified ads or deal with rental agents, roommates or landlords.
That my career has not gone any farther downhill and that things may be actually looking up.
For people like Catherine who live within walking distance and offer to meet me for a drink on Thanksgiving or my birthday.
This year:
1) I am one parent and one grandparent lighter.
2) I am still reasonably healthy, I just don’t feel it a lot of the time. And I am paying less for health insurance, even if it is fucking Kaiser Permanente, the McDonald’s of health plans.
3) Yeah, I have enough to eat and yeah, I make bad choices
4) Still have a roof over my head in a neighbourhood people would kill to live in, don’t have to deal with roommates, classified ads, etc. If I can just keep everything from falling apart until more money comes in…
5) Still working in a top ten market, with the usual ratings fluctuations
6) Still thankful for the pigs. They know how to live. They eat every meal as though it were a Thanksgiving dinner.
7) Home equity line of credit is maxed out and the fucks at Wachovia won’t extend it. The twit I last dealt with said “just try to get your debt down a little more.” Yeah, tell the starving people in Africa their problems would just go away if they’d just eat a little more.
8) I have almost all my generic winter holiday gifts already. About all I need now is some gift bags and paper. This year I’m not falling for those “sales” that really aren’t.
9) No close family members or pigs have died within the last four months.
10) Mom, her siblings and Dad’s are still in reasonably good health.
11) Mom’s cat and my pigs are healthy.
12) Catherine is out of town this year due to a family emergency, but I still have good friends with whom I can have dinner. Including Uncle Pat, who has lived and lost more than I have yet can still say “it’s memories of days like today that matter.”
13) My career is moving laterally or even downhill, but at least I’m free from the bad choice I made a little over a year ago.
Yes, I still have something left. Now to get over the fear that even that will be taken away.
“You're a middle class American living better than 99 percent of the world and enjoying luxuries unimaginable even half a century ago. Perhaps you're focused on what you don't have - not on what you do - ask yourself whether this is healthy or unhealthy to think this way.”
Okay, I have running water and electricity but then so do probably all of my elementary school classmates. And my high school, undergraduate school and graduate school classmates. Plus, some of them are more attractive than I am, married to attractive men, have more money and more prestigious jobs than I do. And looking at what I had to be thankful for in 2003 when I first started blogging and last year I have less and less for which to be thankful every year. (I didn’t list anything in 2004 as I was still getting over my father’s death.
This is what I had to be thankful for three years ago:
1) Both my parents and my grandmother are alive and in reasonably good health.
2) I am reasonably healthy, even if I don't always feel good, I at least have the strength (willpower?) to drag myself from one job to another. Even though I am paying $309 per month out of pocket for health insurance, it allows me to go to any doctor or hospital I want to, and I can use it as a tax deduction.
3) I have enough food to eat, and don't have to rely on a food bank, even though I make the wrong choices and eat too much junk food/convenience food.
4) I have a roof over my head in a neighborhood a lot of people would kill to live in, and I pay an absurdly low amount to live there. Even though my condo looks awful now, someday I will get my act together.
5) Even though I have to work three jobs, I am working at one of the top ten stations in a top ten market. Some people would do my job for free.
6) My pigs.
7) Home equity lines of credit and 0% APR credit cards, which I ditch as soon as the APR goes up.
8) Technology which allows me to start my holiday shopping early without leaving my computer, get cash in the middle of the night on a holiday, put gas in my car without dealing with an attendant, refill my prescriptions, which improve my life, by phone, talk to relatives hundreds of miles away while I'm in my car and reheat the mashed potatoes in a plastic bowl within seconds.
This is what I had to be thankful for last year:
That no family members or pigs have died within the last four months.
That Mom and her siblings and Dad’s four sisters are all in reasonably good health.
That Mom’s cat and my pigs are healthy.
That I am healthy even though I have to drag myself out of bed.
That I have a place to live and will for about the next 27 or 28 years. I do not have to answer classified ads or deal with rental agents, roommates or landlords.
That my career has not gone any farther downhill and that things may be actually looking up.
For people like Catherine who live within walking distance and offer to meet me for a drink on Thanksgiving or my birthday.
This year:
1) I am one parent and one grandparent lighter.
2) I am still reasonably healthy, I just don’t feel it a lot of the time. And I am paying less for health insurance, even if it is fucking Kaiser Permanente, the McDonald’s of health plans.
3) Yeah, I have enough to eat and yeah, I make bad choices
4) Still have a roof over my head in a neighbourhood people would kill to live in, don’t have to deal with roommates, classified ads, etc. If I can just keep everything from falling apart until more money comes in…
5) Still working in a top ten market, with the usual ratings fluctuations
6) Still thankful for the pigs. They know how to live. They eat every meal as though it were a Thanksgiving dinner.
7) Home equity line of credit is maxed out and the fucks at Wachovia won’t extend it. The twit I last dealt with said “just try to get your debt down a little more.” Yeah, tell the starving people in Africa their problems would just go away if they’d just eat a little more.
8) I have almost all my generic winter holiday gifts already. About all I need now is some gift bags and paper. This year I’m not falling for those “sales” that really aren’t.
9) No close family members or pigs have died within the last four months.
10) Mom, her siblings and Dad’s are still in reasonably good health.
11) Mom’s cat and my pigs are healthy.
12) Catherine is out of town this year due to a family emergency, but I still have good friends with whom I can have dinner. Including Uncle Pat, who has lived and lost more than I have yet can still say “it’s memories of days like today that matter.”
13) My career is moving laterally or even downhill, but at least I’m free from the bad choice I made a little over a year ago.
Yes, I still have something left. Now to get over the fear that even that will be taken away.
posted by Numerologist at 10:38 PM
<< Home