I Am Thankful...

... just as much today as I was yesterday on Thanksgiving for many things:

For my family whom I love very much, for their health and well being, and likewise for my friends.

I am thankful for my upbringing, for the attitude toward life that it has given me. One aspect of that attitude is that I should earn my keep, and earn the things I want to keep. There is a much more than subtle difference between those two objectives, but both involve the same work ethic. I am thankful I have it, though i will admit to all to often wanting something for as little work as possible. The thing is I never achieve anything without work, so even if I want something for nothing I always wind up working if I ever truly expect to get it. That goes no matter how much I might bitch and moan and complain about things. Sometimes I wish others would be more able to see that in me, some of my bosses at work for instance. Then again the ones who ever truly took more than a mere moment to try to get to know me have realized that I am one of the better workers they have ever met. As for the others who have not seen it, they are shortsighted and that is not my shortcoming. As for my family, I sometimes wonder if they realize how much I have worked to make things as good for them as I could make them. I suppose someday they will realize it if they have not already done so.

I am also thankful for the questioning attitude I often exhibit. I do follow or obey blindly they who tell me how it has to be. I am the penultimate cynic, and I find myself questioning the reasoning, the motivation, behind others words when they tell me THIS IS THE WAY IT IS, as in their way or no way. Sorry I was not born yesterday, and during the course of my life I have seen lots of folks who have told me their way was the the only way, the best way, the way I had to do it or see it and so on. I find it difficult to accept that others think they can think better for me than do I. I think for myself and do it quite well.

I am thankful that I am loyal. You see, even though I often question authority, or question those who tell me how they believe it should be, I also can and will follow they who have earned my trust, and they who have demonstrated to me that they are worthy of my loyalty. Maybe I should have said that differently, I am happy I do not give my loyalty cheaply or blindly, but only to someone who has earned it. Imagine that - as I expect myself to earn things, I also expect the same of others.

I am thankful that I can and allow myself to sometimes be vindictive. No it is not always better to turn the other cheek, but rather to be prepared to defend ones self and one's family. If you want my trust and loyalty earn them; however if you destroy that trust by hurting me or my family - don't expect me to say: 'Please do it to me or us again'.

I am thankful for the good life that my beliefs and my work have afforded to me. I am thankful for the roof over my family's head, the floor under our feet, the earth in which we garden, the cars that we drive, the clothes on our backs, the food that feed us, the education we have received, the rights we are at liberty to enjoy, the life we lead.

I am thankful to be an American, a citizen of the greatest nation that this earth has ever known. Greatest not in size, not in strength, not in number of conquests, not in number of citizens, but rather in our freedom, our rights and liberties.

I am thankful to those Americans, and others, who help us maintain our great nation as a beacon of righteousness and freedom.

I am thankful to and salute those of our military who are on foreign shores protecting us from they who would harm us.

I am thankful to and salute our Law Enforcement Officers, those who protect us from the same; but please do not confuse this with promoting self inflated pompous buffoons in law enforcement who seek to steal away our rights and control us by way of police power and excessive government regulation.

I am grateful and thankful that I have been allowed to serve my country, even if only in the civil service, for the past 29 years.

I am thankful I have known my limitations, but also that I have been able to shoot for the stars on certain occasions damn the limitations.

I am thankful that I have known when to quit asking for or expecting more - this especially with regard to my having been satisfied, even happy, in the levels I have achieved in my career. We were not all meant or cut out to be bosses, and I have always been quite content being in charge of an army of one - that being myself. It's not that I think I would not have been qualified to have become a boss, heck I am positive could do the job better than many if not most of those who have been my supervisors, just that I was content not to do so - I guess mainly because I see how self inflated many become once they achieve a level of power over others.

Mind you, I am very thankful for the good bosses I have had; and thankful that most of the less than good ones were pretty benign.


I am thankful that I have been able to pursue interests other than simply working my life away; thankful for the down time - even just for moments of leisure where and when I found them.

I am thankful for the opportunity to tell you all of this, and more importantly thankful to you for reading it.

All the best,
Glenn B