.....in which I give thanks for some things.

I suspect many bloggers will take the opportunity that this week presents to list some things for which they are thankful.  Normally, I don't like to do what everyone else does, but to not take some time to think about the things that I'm thankful for would seem ungrateful, so here we go:  a list of things that I am thankful for on the week of Thanksgiving, 2015, with some brief comments on why I am thankful for them.  In, of course, no particular order.

• Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That probably sounds pretty patriotic, even jingoistic, but when I look around at the world today -- to say nothing of human history -- it's a pretty substantial blessing to be living in a time and place where I don't have to worry over much about getting shot, being imprisoned, starving to death, dying of rampant disease, spending my life exploited in a sweatshop, etc., etc., etc.  Screwed up as we are, it is still a pretty good thing to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
• Other human beings.  I've been privileged in life to know a lot of people who are superlatively interesting, fun loving, kind, generous and/or some combination of all of them.  We need people around us.  It's part of life.  Didn't Aristotle say something about man being, at base, a political (which is to say social) animal?  Even that new Fox show about the Last Man on Earth couldn't survive long without throwing some other people into the mix.  We should learn from that.  It's probably the only thing we can learn from that show, beyond the folly of expecting Will Forte to carry his own program, but it's an important lesson.  We should truly appreciate the people around us. 
• Beer:  Those four letters pretty much say it all.  If they don't, I'm not sure anything else I could write by way of explanation would help.
• Golf:  See above on the four letters and their adequacy/inadequacy regarding explanation.
• I am thankful that when my infant son cries because he is hungry, we are generally able to do something about it.  I had this thought the other day.  It's embarrassing and tragic that in a world as technologically and economically advanced as we are that there are numbers of parents who still have to listen to their children cry out in hunger and not be able to do anything about it beyond hold them and cry with them.  Dammit but we need to do better about this. 
• Cars that run.  I'm at the moment driving a 2006 Volvo S40 that my wife bought new nearly 10 years ago.  112k miles with barely any mechanical work beyond routine maintenance.  That's not my general experience with cars.  I'll take it.
• That I was born and raised in Montana.  It's hard to say this without implying insult to people born anyplace else, but there's just something superlative in Montana character development.  Mind you, this isn't to trumpet my own character.  It's to imagine how much more flawed it would be if I weren't from Montana.
• Air travel.  I'm not the most well-travelled man in the world, but I've been some pretty cool places.  I've seen temples in Thailand and India, cathedrals in Europe, and mosques in the Arabian Desert.  Not bad for a farm boy from Montana, and I doubt any of it would have happened without the modern system of air travel.  Also it allows my parents to visit me frequently though I live miles away from home.  Or it would if my mom weren't paralyzed with fear of flying and my dad could stand to be away from a firearm for more than 30 minutes.  Maybe I should re-think that Montana bit.
• The crumbling American economy.  Stay with me on this one.  I'm told by those who should know that it is becoming harder and harder for Americans to achieve any real financial independence anymore.  Lower median income and mounting student debt are making such things as owning homes more unrealistic for an increasing number of people, and people are dependent on their parents for more than just health insurance much later in life.  One side effect of this is that it is taking Americans longer and longer to effectively grow up.  Effectively, that is to say, we're younger longer.  My experience meshes with this.  I'm just over 40, and I still feel like a relatively young man, particularly economically speaking.  20 years ago, I would have been identified as middle aged.  So, yeah, bring on the mortgage that I can hardly pay even though my salary is near the top of national averages for professors in my discipline at comparable colleges.  If it means I can keep credibly pretending I'm 29, I'm all for it.  Or at least I keep telling myself that.
• The increasingly long, expensive, and sensationalized American Presidential election cycle.  No, I'm not serious here.  I just wanted to see if you were still paying attention.
• The Public School system.  As incredibly fraught with problems as it is (more on this below), it is a pretty nice thing to be able to drop my son off in the morning and know that he is safe, taken care of, and that someone is at least making some kind of attempt to educate him while I am at work. 
• I am thankful that I went through the process of public schooling when and where I did.  Education has gotten shockingly bad in our day and age, as this video of students at Texas Tech shows.  There's seemingly no guarantee anymore that being "educated" will result in one not being an ignoramus.  I suppose if we as a society have to choose between feeding everyone and making sure that our next generation knows anything beyond what's going on with the Kardashians, I'll take feeding the hungry, but come on, we can do better.  Speaking of college students.....
• I'm thankful for my students at Patrick Henry College.  Being a college prof is pretty much a plum job in any case (but for the cavernous debt and low salaries) but the intellectual acumen, maturity, and curiosity of PHC students make teaching class an experience that pretty much approaches conversation with colleagues.  Those of you reading this, thanks sincerely.  It's much appreciated.
• Dogs.  The most loving and non-judgmental part of God's creation.  Mankind couldn't ask for a better best friend.  Speaking of non-judgment......
• Grace.  I am profoundly thankful beyond measure that good Lord in heaven above has forgiven me my sins, both egregious and otherwise.  Beyond that, I'm quite thankful to the people who know and love me for putting up with the barrels of grief* that I am prone to dish out along with all of this wit and charm.  I'm looking especially at you, Nicole Grewell.  You're a saint, and it means the world to me.

I'm sure there's more I could and should list, but I don't want this to turn into an Oscars acceptance speech.  I will say lastly that if you've read this far, I'm thankful to you for reading.  If you're still reading and glutton for more punishment, you might be interested in checking out a piece I recently published in Transpositions, a really nifty online journal out of St. Andrews University on Imagination and the Arts.  The piece is on reading "dark" literature.  Otherwise, I'll hope to see you all next Tuesday.  Happy Thanksgiving!

*I might have chosen a more appropriately descriptive word here, but I felt the internal rhyme with "wit" later on in the sentence was a bit much.