Soapbox on Gratitude

It may be true that someday our economy will fall apart and we will all live super poor, but the truth is I think we're all living pretty "high on the hog," as some older folks would say. As a genealogist, I'm confronted almost daily with the reminder that nearly all of our ancestors lived a whole lot poorer than any of us do. Even British kings lived in drafty stone buildings and ate food cooked over a fire. They couldn't take a warm shower every morning. They couldn't hop into a heated car when they wanted to get somewhere. And for the majority of people in nearly every generation preceding ours, life was a whole lot harder. We have so much comfort. I am so blessed to be able to get out of bed every morning and be in a house that has already heated itself for me. I turn on an electric light with the flip of a switch. I get into a warm indoor shower and know that the water is clean and sanitary. I eat food stored in an indoor cooling device so that it stays fresh for long periods of time. I get to brush my teeth using clean running water. I got a cavity filled at the dentist yesterday - he saved my tooth from eventually rotting and falling out like in the old days, and thanks to modern anesthetics I didn't feel any pain. When I need to go somewhere, I get into my car. If I'm cold, my car heats up for me. If I'm hot, it cools down. Even if gas is expensive, I know I have access to as much as I want if I'm willing to pay for it. I can technically go anywhere I choose to go without limit. Whenever I want to talk to someone, I can call them up on a cell phone, from virtually any place. If Jozie and I want to play, we can go to a public park, where we can enjoy cut grass and clean playground equipment. If I want to read a book, I can go to a public library and have access to about anything I want to read - many of our ancestors never learned to sign their own names and had access to very few books. If I have a question, I can consult the internet and have an answer in minutes, sometimes seconds. There's so much I haven't mentioned, like benefiting from a sewer system, modern medicine, eye wear, etc., etc., etc.

In order to get people to keep buying, companies keep putting out better and better things. I think this is a good thing and I enjoy nice things, but I never feel like I need the fanciest of any thing. I think I am just reminded too often that my ancestors would have been astounded to even see a car, so it really doesn't matter if it's got a leather interior and GPS system. We've done a lot of work to our '50s-built house and it's pretty small, and yet it is amazing. We didn't have to cut logs and put our house together from scratch. It isn't (very) drafty. It never leaks. It has carpeting. We have windows - generations ago people were taxed based on the number of windows they had because having any windows was a sign of wealth.

I know there are problems in our modern society. I know there are people who are really struggling. I believe that even those people are living better than 99% of the people who lived on this planet before the 20th century. I really believe that anyone who applies themselves in this country, especially when they're young, can succeed. We are so blessed.