A Moment of Gratitude
Terry H. Schwadron
Nov. 28, 2024
Much more in our public world seem headed wrong in our world than right. For the most part, what feels right revolves around personal relationships and interests.
The personal is where we turn from dissatisfaction with even listening to the endless river of assaultive news headlines. We see plenty of evidence that, partisan loyalties aside, people say they are skipping the news and the world.
It feels too much constant, futile work to seek context and sift for significant, critical thought through the Team Trump barrage, world wars and repetitive marketing campaigns. Even attentive citizens say they are exhausted. We put up with our public chaos, but little of it is prompting feelings of gratitude.
Most of us prefer to say thank you not to political parties, candidates, and nations that purport to speak for us, but instead to family and friends, whose love and shared interests keep us buoyant enough to face another day. Sharing a partner’s meaningful glance, hearing a child’s (of any age) joy or sorrow, or knowing that you may have helped a friend deal with a difficult moment is enough to brace for whatever it is that the politicians have decided to throw up today. So too, we embrace a morning coffee, freshly baked bread, time with good friends, and a pain-free workout.
I’m thankful that I can turn to music-making, for enveloping myself in the sound, structure and mechanics of playing an instrument requires shoving the world’s problems aside for a bit. So too for well-done humor with those who can understand what you recognize as funny, even if others do not. I’m lucky that an hour of sitting quietly to consider nature can clear the mind as easily as finding a good book or experiencing live performance.
One source of balance comes from a weekly conversation with a friend in Western Ukraine about trying to live a normal life through nights in bathrooms and basements frightened by air alarms, on-and-off electricity, wartime prices and worry about both Russian takeover and the mobilizations that are sweeping men from her city’s streets. Her perpetual effervescence about dealing with it all is a map to keeping gratitude a critical value.
Here’s wishing you a Thanksgiving holiday that stresses a day of recharge rather than the realities of political retribution.
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