Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s some of the things I am thankful for:

I’m thankful that my family and I are healthy, safe, and as happy as can be expected of thoughtful, slightly neurotic Americans in these dawning years of the 21st century.

I’m thankful that I have the love of a good woman and a really great kid.

I’m thankful I live in a country that affords me a broad range of freedoms, including the right to publicly—or at least as public as this blog—to state my dissatisfaction with the government and say things like: “The social, environmental, and foreign policies of President George Bush are horribly misguided; the decision to invade Iraq was, from a moral standpoint unjust, from a practical standpoint deeply flawed, and from a humanistic standpoint disastrous.”

I’m thankful that I have a job that I like pretty well, that gives me ample opportunities for creative self-expression, and which allows me to feel—sometimes, anyway—that I’m making some small contribution to the betterment of society.

I’m thankful I have a home that is warm, dry, and comfortable, that’s conveniently located along bus lines in a city with enough cultural, social, and gastronomic charms to keep me feeling alive and engaged with the world at large.

I’m thankful that I get to ride my bike nearly every day and that my town is bike-friendly enough that I usually feel adequately safe on the road to get out and ride at all hours of the day and night, sometimes in states of consciousness where it would be quite unwise to operate a motor vehicle.

I’m thankful for my friends, both in Seattle and elsewhere who generally tolerate me with requisite bemusement and help me to feel that I’m appreciated by at least those who have a somewhat skewed way of looking at things.

I’m thankful that I was born on March 27th and so I only have to write 327 words a day.