Thanksgiving weekend is finally here. I have heard grumbling that there is little to be thankful for. Well I beg to differ. Yes we have COVID, and as a society we are divided and we are finding out some of our ancestors are people we would not like to associate with. We would rather die with a ventilator tube shoved down our throat than have a pin prick in the arm Some are not happy with our government, or their jobs their relationship and other reasons for our autumn of discontent.

So who divided us? Who is to blame for our discontent and angst? We as individuals are responsible for our attitude.

Why are we so negative? One serious reason is we have a distorted view of the world. We should count our positive achievements instead of rejecting science. We are now accustomed to instant solutions to our massive portrait of self interest and self indulgence, If we had an approved vaccine in a week life would have gone on as normal. Science didn’t satisfy our demand immediately so we rebelled as a society. Think about it we’ve been tolerant waiting for other solutions. It took a hundred years to find a malaria vaccine and cancer patients are still without a cure in many cases.

The difference is COVID inconvenienced us.

If you tear away the excuses you will likely find other problems with no instant solution. The pandemic is a reminder of our arrogance. In large part we’ve been able to hoodwink Mother Nature for a hundred years. We’ve disregarded the warnings, we’ve manipulated the rules of nature for social and economic benefit and the offensive sound we hear are the chickens coming home to roost. Believe it or not we should be open to being thankful and count our blessings.

Every generation has a challenge or a major crisis to overcome. Many countries have faced the ravages of war hate and violent polarization. They are reaping the ravages of environmental degradation and due to the lack of social service infrastructure they lack medical access. Starvation is the norm in some countries and feuding factions provide constant conflict and destruction. Yes if we insist we can dwell on the negative here at home, after all Canadians have turned complaining into an art form. So with the negatives of life being addressed what can we be thankful for? First of all we are alive and we the living have the power to change our attitudes and explore the positives in life. We are a nation of laws and while we don’t always agree we elected the people currently in charge, As a society we settle our differences peacefully or in the courts as opposed to killing each other.
We have social programs to assist in everything from healthcare to the disadvantaged. No these programs are not perfect but think of what life would be like without them.

The most important thing to be thankful for is we have each other. Our family our neighbors and even our fellow citizens.
We live in one of the best countries in the world if not the best. It is time to appreciate collectively what we have instead of complaining about the things we haven’t fixed in society yet.
When it comes to all the negatives around the world we have been given the instruction manuals as to how to avoid the mistakes of others in everything from the environment to how we treat each other.

So it’s the time of year we put on our positive hat and work together to fix what needs fixing instead of complaining about the mess we together have created. The best thing about being thankful is we can truly appreciate what we have.
It’s Thanksgiving and ask this question. Why would God give us more if we are constantly complaining about all that has been given to us?

Greet your neighbor over the back fence, greet family members with a smile if we do this the world as we see it might just seem a little brighter

Happy Thanksgiving

Fred Steele