Thursday, November 25, 2010
Giving thanks
Happy Thanksgiving!
In the hurly-burly of our lives in the middle of the Great Recession, it is easy for we Americans to forget how fortunate we are. I am grateful every day, but do not really reflect as often as I should on my enormous good fortune. Simply being born in the United States puts one ahead of at least 85% of humans (which allows for the possibility that being born in other OECD countries is not half bad). Being born in, say, the last 50 years has been far better for most people than having been born earlier, however much we might romanticize the early days of the republic. Finally, then, if you were fortunate enough to have been born in good health and to a loving family you got a jump on virtually all humans now alive or who have ever lived.
That's not "born on first base"; that's born sliding in to home.
Discuss.
7 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Nov 25, 09:37:00 AM:
"eat your vegetables. Don't you know there are people starving in Africa."
By , at
Thu Nov 25, 10:00:00 AM:
Well written, Tigerhawk. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
By , at
Thu Nov 25, 10:55:00 AM:
Even the poorest among us live far better than any corpulent king of the Middle Ages, when "middle age" meant being about 21 years old. And for those of us with some education and financial security, is there a better time and place to be alive than the USA in 2010? Okay, maybe the USA in January of 2013, but that's another matter. Happy Thanksgiving.
By 
gregor, at
Thu Nov 25, 10:59:00 AM:
Well met.
Enjoy this day of bounty, fellowship and reflection.
Gregor
By , at
Thu Nov 25, 11:42:00 PM:
I was listening to Dennis Prager this afternoon and he was talking about one of his favorit topics "happiness." He was talking about how much he loves Thanksgiving, because as he said "one cannot be truly happy without being grateful for something."
TH your post is perfect...
By rcw, at
Fri Nov 26, 07:20:00 AM:
Hey TH -- your remarks remind me a lot of my Dad's statistical philosophizing. He usually starts with the impossible odds of any of us having been born at all.
He was also, surely, a heavy influence on the Thanksgiving poem that came to me yesterday morning, and became my sunrise blog post of the day.
It is never a bad time to recognize good fortune.
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Fri Nov 26, 04:44:00 PM:
Summary of the great benefit of living in this age, from PJ O'Rourke:
Modern Dentistry.
