Oh to be Thankful

Today was supposed to be the warm-fuzzy 'things I'm thankful for' blog but events in the news have a way of intruding into the plans of mice and men. The MSM (mainstream media) is trying its best to ignore the growing scandal that is going to rock the scientific world to its core. It appears that a hacker hit the mother lode that reveals ongoing manipulation of climate data, discarding of data conflicting with Anthropomorphic (man caused) Global Warming conclusions, and a conspiracy to keep papers refuting AGW out of the peer review process. It is still too early to tell how far this reaches but it may actually impact the validity of the infamous 'hockey stick' graph that is used to silence critics of AGW and reveals that data from the Medieval Warm Period (in which the earth's average temperature was higher than 1998 the 'warmest year on record') was marginalized in order to push the AGW agenda forward. In other words the whole Global Warming bit is a HOAX!

Here is the article in the UK Telegraph for those of you interested in more details:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

Now I'm not going to crow that this is the end of AGW as some will. The powermongers and money greedy are not going to just let it die. Expect even more backlashes from the eco-freaks as they circle the wagons and insist even more loudly that they are right.

So, on to thankfulness. We are so wealthy as a society that we have forgotten what it actually means to be thankful or grateful. Oh, we can talk a good line about the things we're thankful for but how often do we actually stop to fully appreciate what we have? I have so much that I don't even know how to appreciate them. I have books by the hundreds and baseball cards by the thousands. I have so many things that most of them were looked at for a moment and plopped away on a shelf or in a closet. Between Mrs. C and I, we have filled most of the empty space in the house.

It reminds me of historian Simon Schama's book "The Embarrassment of Riches". The book examines the Dutch trade empire from the perspective of their middle class. At the time the Dutch were VERY Protestant and VERY devout. Their trade empire made most of the Dutch very rich within the span of a generation. This created a serious conundrum for them. As good Protestants they whole heartedly believed in what we call the "Christian work ethic". But now, many not only did not have to work for their wealth they were inundated with it. Unlike Americans who are excited to conspicuously consume, the Dutch were embarrassed by their sudden wealth. Schama describes how many would try to get rid of the money by buying up as much as possible and then...hiding it. Middle class Dutch households would literally be bursting with goods. Books were popular but many a proper house would have hundreds of sets of table linens - many never used. They would buy stacks and stacks of chinaware only to shove them into hutches also never to be used. Pottery, books, bedding, and the like filled every corner of Dutch houses and they would go on working as proper Christians were supposed to only to grow even wealthier and have to hide that (a horrible circle I'm sure!). In the end, the sudden wealth went as fast as it came and in its wake it left the Dutch much less religious and much less industrious.

I am very thankful for our great wealth. Even the poorest Americans are rich by the standards of most of the population of the rest of the world. No American can probably even imagine having to live on $20 per month but billions do.

One day Mrs. C asked me what I thought would most amaze Medieval people about us. Most of my thoughts would take up an entire blog of its own but my first answer was 'how much food we have'. I then quickly amended it to 'how much food we waste'. Most Americans throw out as much food as people in the Third World have every year. As we sit down to gorge ourselves tomorrow please take a moment to be truly TRULY thankful for the sheer abundance of food that we have.

Before the family comes tomorrow, before the feasting begins, before the noise of the football games drowns out your thoughts go someplace quiet just for five minutes; heck, you can probably do this exercise in the shower. Just take that time for a little introspection. If you don't believe in God, I'd strongly recommend taking the time to open your mind to Him. Think about what we have to be thankful for and then THANK HIM for it. I am thankful for having so much that I cannot even organize it all. I am thankful for reasonably good health. I am thankful that I was born an American with so many rights, so much wealth, and so little burden. I am thankful for the abundance and variety of food I have. I am thankful for my family from my very supportive parents and best friend brother to my two remaining grandparents to my many aunts, uncles, and cousins, to an extended family out of all proportion (great aunts/uncles, second cousins, cousins removed x times, and all of their families).

I am also very thankful for my wonderful wife. Amazingly she not only tolerates this blog but actually supports it. She doesn't play jealousy games (something I am not equipped to play nor would I be able to tolerate) when I ogle Natalie Portman, Kiera Knightley, Michelle Trachtenberg, and a whole host of 'flavor of the month' actresses/celebrities (so you know, I don't get jealous of her celebrity passions either). She tolerates my moods and insecurities. She knows and accepts that I will only assimilate about 1/4 of the things she tells me and will make sure my attention is focused if she wants to tell me something important. At this time in my life, I can't imagine another woman tolerating me (I think I'm difficult to live with but I've been living with me for 40 years now) so every day she's still here I'm that much more amazed.

I hope you all find the time to be truly thankful for the many fold blessings of your life tomorrow and of equal importance, I hope you know to Whom those thanks should be given.

Have a truly Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.