SPECIAL EDITION - What is there to be thankful for?

I know that it is not the weekend...but it feels like it!

It's Thanksgiving!

The Internet and all of the social networks are buzzing with HAPPY THANKSGIVING wishes...

It is heart-warming...but the superficiality of it also causes me to step back and think...

I don't believe that there is any other holiday that we celebrate that possesses the philosophical depth of Thanksgiving!

As I ponder the great wisdom writings...an interesting commonality arises...the futility of effort...and ultimately life itself...

As we look out at the world around us...good people suffer and bad people prosper...

It appears random...

Whether you pursue a life of purity and selflessness or one of pure selfishness and hoarding...it all ends in death...and both leave with exactly the same...

Life...is like chasing the wind...simply enjoy it!

If he were pressed, Maslow, would have to admit that whether a person is simply surviving or self-actualizing, they leave the world absolutely equal...

An interesting scorecard!

What then do we have to be thankful for?

I do not think that the answer lies in complexity...but in simplicity...

Life at its lowest level...

Thankfulness should spring from the basics and grow...recognizing the temporality of everything after the very basics of life...

Are you eating?

Do you have something to drink?

Can you go to sleep and do so peacefully and securely?

Do you have someone to carry on your name (and your legacy) after you have died?

Any Thanksgiving after that is simply recognizing the superficial gifts that we have fallen upon by chance...

We need to be thankful for the immediate fruits of our work...and the hope that what we stand for will continue into future generations...

EAT...DRINK...SLEEP...CHILDREN

These are things that we need to be truly thankful for...

All of the rest is no more meaningful than make-up on a Manichean!

Do not get me wrong...it is not bad to show appreciation and share our bounty...

It is wrong to think that we had anything to do with it!

These things are gifts...to an undeserving hoard...

In the end...the scorecard is erased and the game is tied!

I am simply thankful for today and the fact that I awoke from a peaceful rest...as I retire each night, my heart and mind has no anxiety for what tomorrow could hold for my actions of the past...

I am blessed with a bounty of food...and drink...especially fresh water!

and finally...

My children have the seeds of my thoughts, hopes and aspirations...deeply embedded in their soul...and I trust that they will use them in the ways that they see best fit!

I am truly blessed not because of my past or present...but one one gift and one gift alone...

HOPE!

We are directed by the "wise who came before us" to seek knowledge, understanding and wisdom...

Let me add to that another great gift...hope!

I am thankful for those things that I have that keep me in this life...food, drink and children...

I am thankful for the opportunity to seek wisdom, knowledge and understanding and it is this greatest gift...hope that carries me into tomorrow!

Have a happy thanksgiving!

Share this with everyone you know...

Focus our world on those things we need to be thankful for!