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Modern medicine. I saw a Facebook memory from three years ago along these lines this morning, which I had labeled “Time”. The problem then was I had a bulging disc in my back that was pressing against the nerve going down the back of my left leg and it hurt. So I was glad that I wasn’t in the past and they were able to fix the problem instead of cutting off my leg to release the evil spirits.
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My left leg. I use it. A lot. And there are no evil spirits in it (that I know of…).
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Cities Sports Connection. I know I mentioned it when talking about soccer, but it’s relevant here because I found out that the male side of the roster is full on my old Mad Dogs team. However, I was able to register with the league as a “free agent”, so we’ll see what kind of players I get teamed up with. Hopefully pleasant and relatively hygienic—that’s always a good starting point.
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Pacemakers. (I got sidetracked after #1… I’m sure it’ll never happen again.) I know several people who have them and I’m grateful that their hearts are still beating instead of doctors opening up their chests to release the evil spirits.
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Hospital food. Because you can usually get it and bring it back to a patient’s hospital room. And there are no evil spirits in it (that I know of…).
Gratitudes 2018, Day 48
I starting writing this earlier today and it didn’t feel like anything resembling a list of gratitudes. Apparently, thinking about 9/11 can have that effect on me… It ended up being kind of a “wish list” at the end, but it took some work to get there. (Note: there are some naughty words in here, so if you have delicate sensibilities, you may want to put on some protective eyewear before reading any further.)
I’ve forgotten a lot about the year 2001, but I remember where I was on 9/11. I was reading in the lunchroom at school when I looked up and saw a group of people staring at a TV up on the wall. I walked over there just in time to see the second plane hit the World Trade Center and left to go to class just as the first tower started to collapse.
People saw it as a national tragedy and I think it unified the country in a way. It gave us something we could look at and say, “That was bad.” Everyone had that and we all fit inside one “That was bad” circle of a Venn diagram. And so that’s my one gratitude for today:
- Unity.
Unfortunately, it’s a better gratitude for 2001 than 2018. There’s still a great deal of unity—maybe even more now—but I recommend you avoid applying Venn diagrams unless you’re a big fan of circles that don’t touch.
I’d like to mention here that I want to see ZERO comments pointing fingers or placing blame on the current state of the country. It doesn’t matter how we got here. The point is that we’re here.
We may never see that overall sentiment of “That was bad” again. Our society has become so fragmented and compartmentalized and separated that if one group of people thinks, “That was bad”, you’ll find another group that thinks, “Yaaaaay!”
“They believe something or they have something or they are something that I don’t like, so fuck ’em.”
And that kind of sentiment has become so widespread, it’s sickening. There was a time when a car driving into a crowd of people was “That was bad” by default. Now if it’s a crowd of protesters, “Good! They deserved it! The car should have hit and killed more of them!”
HOW IS THAT OKAY?!?!
But it is. All kinds of people from all sorts of different circles are embracing it. If you don’t like someone, we’ve gone waaaaay beyond “I’m not going to invite them to my birthday party.” Now it’s “They’re not like me, so fuck ’em.”
When this stuff started bouncing around in my head, I thought about writing “You’re not like me”, but we don’t even have that anymore. It’s not “you and me”, it’s “us and them.” So many people just love staying in their circles and have no problems sitting back and blaming people on the outside for pretty much anything they don’t like.
I wish I had an answer. I wish I had an idea of how to fix things. I wish I had a gigantic Band-Aid that I could put over the entire country and all our problems would eventually scab over, then fall off and we’d be healed. Unfortunately, they don’t make Band-Aids that big. And even if they did, a lot of us (myself included) have trouble not picking scabs before the wound is fully healed.
This is as far as I got until reading something at work and the author used the word “empathy.” We could definitely use a lot more of that. So I looked back at what I wrote and thought, “What are some ways to combat this mindset that so many people have? What can people do for themselves that’ll help ease their frustrations? How can we heal the world, make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race?” (No, I honestly have no idea why that song popped into my head.) So here’s my wish list for everyone:
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Empathy
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Compassion
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Listening
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Understanding
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Acceptance
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Gratitudes 2018, Day 47
Since I mentioned Berkley and Sophie yesterday (Berkley’s the one in front), I decided to write some gratitudes about them. Thus, the Berkley and Sophie Edition:
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Berkley’s anxiety. I know, an odd thing to be grateful for. It’s not like we enjoy seeing him shaking in the kennel when we’re leaving the house, but Teresa thought that a companion would help keep him more relaxed. Thus, Sophie joined our family.
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Doggie diapers. Berkley and Sophie are rescues. When we got Sophie almost a year ago, she wasn’t housebroken. Not at all. After the first few accidents, we started investing in doggie diapers to keep her from marking the entire house as her territory.
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Our Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution. It was advertised as a pet carpet cleaner. That’s why we bought it. It’s been good for cleaning up lots of stains, especially stains caused by pets.
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The dogs’ kennel. Their combined weight is about 35 pounds, so they can both fit into a kennel that we keep on the lower level of the house. They can stay in there while we’re at work instead of putting them in daycare every day and we haven’t needed to put a pee pad in the kennel (for either dog) for months.
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Pee pads. The kennel floor is made of hard plastic, so pet carpet cleaners don’t work well there. The vacuum is actually a pretty recent purchase—before then, everything got cleaned by hand. (Berkley sometimes needed a pee pad when he’d be in there for a really long workday, but neither dog has had an accident for a very long time.)
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They love their mama. That can make it difficult for me to take them outside to pee—they’d rather stay inside with Teresa, so I sometimes have to carry that 35 pounds to the entryway to put their harnesses on. That’s a bummer for me, but the fact that they’ve found someone who loves them and they love her back… it’s pretty awesome.
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Berkley loves his mama. That’s a potty-based gratitude. When Teresa takes him out, “Yay, I get to walk with Mom! It’ll last longer if I don’t pee!” When I take him out while she’s home, “I better pee fast so I can get back inside to Mom!”
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Gratitudes 2018, Day 46
It’s late, time for a quickie! (That’s what she said…)
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My grandma. She’ll be turning 101 later this month and I cherish her deeply.
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Grandma’s birthday party. It was about a week and a half early, but when you’re trying to get a lot of extended family members together at the same time, sometimes the date needs to be a little flexible. But there was good food, good fellowship and good fun. And cake. That was good, too.
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Birthday cake. Because it’s cake.
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Crazy Uncle Jon. There are plenty of reasons he’s earned that nickname, but in this case, I’m really glad that he organized the party.
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Berkley and Sophie. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned them before, but I’m grateful for them this time because Grandma loves them. Her vision is terrible and getting worse, but she can see that they have such big, brown eyes… The place she lives now is pet-friendly, so they joined us for the party, behaved extremely well and put a smile on Grandma’s face.
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Gratitudes 2018, Day 45
GOOOOOOOOOAAALLLLLLL!!!!
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Soccer. Football. Futbol. The beautiful game. I remember once saying that when I die, I want “soccer” to be on my gravestone. I’ve backed away from that idea since then, but I can still picture my body in a wooden boat, people pushing it out into the water, shooting it with flaming arrows and then it’s just me and my soccer gear floating together toward the abyss.
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Dick’s Sporting Goods. Some of my soccer gear is old and worn out and needed to be replaced, so that’s where I’ve bought all my new stuff.
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My new soccer ball. I chose it in part because it was on discount and in part because Adidas made a bunch of new soccer balls for the 2018 World Cup. They were all themed for different countries, so there was one that had “Brazil” printed on it, one that had “Germany” on it… I bought a “United States” ball. You know, the country that failed to qualify to play in the Cup this year? So yeah, the ball was on discount.
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My soccer ball holder with the elastic cord. I have no idea if there’s a technical term to describe it: it’s got some velcro straps that wrap around the soccer ball, which then connects to a long elastic cord with a loop at the end that I can hold. Viola! No more damaging the side of the house or the garage door to practice passing and shooting now!
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Soccer training videos. If I’m gonna fall down the YouTube rabbit hole, I might as well learn something productive while I’m at it. Well, okay, maybe just one more cat video first…
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Mad Dogs. Nope, not talking about Berkley and Sophie starting a rumble. Cities Sports Connection runs year-round recreational leagues for a bunch of sports, including soccer. I played with Mad Dogs for a lot of years and I’m very grateful for all of that time. I also looked at the CSC website and they’re listed in the standings, so who knows? Maybe they’ll accept me back on the team when the fall season starts in a few weeks. Just as long as it doesn’t interfere with my watching cat videos…
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Gratitudes 2018, Day 44
Today provided an excellent reminder of why I’m grateful to work in Pubs. Sure, there’s some general satisfaction in doing good work, but it’s even better when I get a message from an editor saying:
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“Good catch.” When I find a mistake that other people missed, knowing it can be corrected and thus prevent thousands of kids in Mississippi from being more confused than they already were while taking a math test… that’s a good feeling.
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“Nice shot.” That wasn’t an editor, that’s what my grandfather would say to me while playing pool. It didn’t matter if I sunk a ball or completely missed everything: “Nice shot.”
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“Will you marry me?” Also not an editor. I’m very grateful that I asked Teresa that question and I’m looking forward to her following through with it in January.
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“We’d love to join you.” My parents live fairly close, so when Teresa and I were talking about what to do for dinner tonight, I suggested that we call and invite them to join us. Yay for having dinner with Mom and Dad!
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“We’ll pay for it.” … Yay for having dinner with Mom and Dad!
