Things to be Thankful For

Things That I'm Grateful For:

1) That I was close to my mom as a kid because being close to her taught me to respect women. She gave me a sense of style in how I dress and how I present myself and she has taught and continues to teach me to appreciate food. Also, she taught me to appreciate stories and that's probably why I like to write. She also taught me to be OK with my emotions. I don't know if you've noticed but men who aren't close to their mothers tend to bottle up their emotions, which can have some potentially explosive negative consequences.

2) That I'm an only child not because I'm selfish (I probably am), but because it gave me time to be OK with myself, something I'm also very, very thankful for. It also means that the friends I have are close, because they're like the only family I have.

3) That I like reading (I'm not a boring snob that thinks TV is evil--I do have a few shows that I'm very loyal to and though I don't have TV I really do miss watching sports). But reading helps me think. When you read an author, that is as close as you can be to someone. When we are speaking to people in conversations, it's difficult to organize thoughts and only a rare few can extend a number of thoughts together in a way that's both coherent but without bravado or having to show off to an audience. Sure, writers sometimes show off to their readers and some don't organize their thoughts well but we can close their books or leave their web pages if we don't like them. When I'm stuck in a conversation with someone like this, it just makes me want to grab a book. 

4) That I'm not afraid of getting out of my shell  I've learned more by traveling--both in the US and abroad--than I have completing any other activity. I have an MA, a PhD and an MBA that taught me a few things, but traveling taught me a whole lot more.

5) That I've been fortunate enough to choose where I live and that I've been able to live in awesome places. These are the following places where I've spent 3 seasons  or more in less chronological order: Menlo Park, CA; Walla Walla, WA; San Francisco; Berkeley; Barcelona; Madrid; Dublin, Ireland; Lawrence, KS and Bellingham, WA. These places are extraordinary world class places and all have taught me great things, usually from the inhabitants who lived there. 

6) That People Have Taken a Chance On Me I'm so thankful that people have taken a chance on me. There's a sort of blind leap of faith when you enter into important relationships and I'm thankful that people like my wife or my current boss took a leap of faith to marry me or hire me, respectively. The world is a better place because those things happened. 

7) That I have an ear for music and that I still have hearing left to listen to it If it's worth listening to, it's worth listening to loud. I'm not sure I get the concept of background music and I have a very wide palate for music. Music is the essence of our soul and no art is closer to what we are as humans. Music literally gives a pulse to our lives and makes life meaningful. I'm so glad that I can hear it and be moved by it. When it's good, it's really, really good. People who are immune to music make me think they're immune to life and that would be really sad if true. 

8) That I'm OK with God I think I've talked with God on several occasions. I very much lean science first and I like to see hard data before deciding on things, so it's hard to just take a leap of faith and believe in something that exists only in your head, but sometimes I let my defenses down and it's nice to think that there's a creator, who can also be our adviser, and that there's angels that watch over us.

9) That I met Lupe, my batshit crazy flat-coated retriever/border collie mix, who taught me the meaning of the word Love. Without Lupe, I wouldn't have met Marcos, my Lab/greyhound sweetheart of a buddy, who sweetened the pot for my wife Kirsten when we decided to get married.

With Marcos and Lupe in a beautiful place