1. I’m thankful for the gym. It’s been a blessing to me. I’ve made it a habit to go there and work myself to death sometimes for no reason at all. I love watching the young kids play. I see a part of my youth in them. I’ve been to a few places on the East Coast of the United States, but everywhere I visit, I always want to know how the gyms are. I’ve even played a few pickup games at poor gyms and I’ve always enjoyed shooting basketballs off of the old wooden backboards.
2. I’m thankful for educational institutions. Being a veteran of the world’s most amazing Navy I found out how to work my brain until it goes numb. I spent the majority of my younger adult life learning and it nearly killed me because my brain almost shutdown completely at age 18. You may think this is a lie, but I had to read the Bible just to get well. I’ve read so many books since that time only to come to the honest belief that there is a creator and the people who publish and write books are so drunk on knowledge that we all seem to get very depressed once we figure everything out. This depression often leads us back to the belief that a creator is watching over us. The more I study, I often remind myself never to get too arrogant to the point where I forget that the Bible healed me. In that statement I keep reading it.
3. I’m thankful for the animals. At the moment that I’m writing this I’m still working at my own business. I live in a state with a lot of parks so I face off with a lot of animals. This may sound funny but I’ve been fighting with rats for the past three months. They’re hard to kill and they don’t seem to care whose property they invade. I’ve been a faithful user of traps that sometimes don’t work and when they fail it gets messy. If you’re receiving this message I don’t know how this is going to end, but at the moment that I’m writing this piece I have a wounded rat trapped inside of my bathroom. It’s been a fight. I tried to help him and he got upset so I closed the door with rat blood everywhere that he’s run to. He’s currently locked inside of the bathroom with a rat trap and I have no clue how this is going to end. The last time I checked on him he would not cooperate and literally jumped to the top of a bathroom shelf. Outside of this bad experience I’ve gotten used to feeding the cats in the back and even created cheap animal spaces around my building. The crows, sparrows, and blackbirds seem to love me. I often catch them watching me wash cars. I think they’ve become attached to me because one injured blackbird wouldn’t leave my side at one point. He died in the back of the building, I honestly believe that it was his dying wish because the New Years before he died they all sat in a tree and brung in the new years pooping on my car. They did it two times just to get my attention and just to show me that I couldn’t do anything about it. I could hear them chirping while watching me clean it. How ironic. I honestly think the animals just swing by just to see my reactions. One cat literally looked at me then darted across a traffic filled street just to see what I would do. A fox did the same thing. One Christmas before they gave hunters the okay to kill deer, a reindeer literally stopped in my backyard and gave me a head nod as if he knew me. For their continued enthusiasm in keeping me busy I’m thankful for the animals.
4. I’m thankful that some of my fellow humans seem to enjoy seeing me suffer while also taking the extra time to comeback and check on me after literally watching me climb out of a very sad situation. The key word is “some” not “all.” I seem to have spent the majority of my life trying to keep it together because of damage that other people have caused. I humbly say that this has made me a better person, but I’ve come to learn a lot about myself, my family, my friends, and most of all, I’ve come to learn why some of us are made to just listen and take a beating so that others can find their own inner strength.
Well, that’s my thankful list this year. I’m also thankful for music and all aspects of the arts. Creativity is a powerful gift that the good lord gives us because just like him we can create.
Now that I’m done with this list I guess I’ll go check on the bloody rat that’s locked in the bathroom. One of us has to win this brutal fight. Sadly, this rat is paying no bills and has literally ruined my weekend, but even in this fighting back and forth to get him out of my building I’m still thankful.
I’m assuming this must be just like the Indians and Cowboys felt fighting over territory. I’m assuming that the pilgrims were just serving their purpose in what we now call the Americas and the United States.
In all of the wild and crazy experiences, I guess I’m thankful to be a part of this grand experiment. I’m also thankful for my grate grandfather who received a Purple Heart in World War 2 I believe. So maybe God does have a plan. What’s the odds of me serving the country and surviving to tell about it? In this wild-Wild-West I don’t know what tomorrow will bring but I guess that’s why they coined the phrase “In God We Trust.” I’ve spent three long days fighting with a wounded bloody rat that’s locked in my bathroom, but even if I lose this fight. If you’re reading this message, I’m still thankful.
The End.
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