Thanksgiving 2023

thankful

(started this rant around Thanksgiving 2023)

rabid dog, foaming and biting tires, small tires, monster tires, didn’t matter, one after the other down the street as the immediate neighborhood was running for cover.

After this most vivid display of madness, in my innocence of six or seven years, just never believed those suggesting that dog, that helpless animal had not gone crazy but was having a stroke from too much sun.

A dog with frothing mouth leaving bubbles of foam stuck to the rubber and the elder's explanation was, not enough water on a hot day ... not only the lathered up treads, but also witnessing the uncontrollable chomping, gnawing and tormented behavior, I know what I saw, don't know (I guess) what I was seeing?

((I’m just fine to have never again borne witness of such an impressionable, savage and surreal then real, real too real of an experience … aka, thankful.))

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openhearted to what morning brings
warmth of a rising sun draped over me

taking its turn twelve hours later
with its friends, twilight and dusk

brokenhearted to what night now brings
she left again, this time for good

thankful, in a solitary kind of way … I'm okay, we're okay ...

okay ... ?

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turkey dinners abound, feeding the homeless - the forgotten by many who look the other way as the other half lives in their own way … and the echo chambers we all listen to intently but simply will not, cannot let go of our own, filtered and preconceived notions ... keeping us at bay, yet also together within this peculiar collective running here, running there, frequently in circles, when not bumping into yourself or another.

very thankful it’s only occasional dizziness, spinning out of control is only fun when prepared for that type of ride ... then, it's sail away along the iridescent horizon.

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Looking through my own small window from my own personal space, frustration in human affairs can undermine the plentiful joys, very thankful for the upsides, helping ride out the downs.

Noticing a repeating theme on comments to students on a recent assignment, I think it was this frustration being expressed. And, to keep my remarks fresh (for me as well as for the students) I changed up the themes using multiple rhemes, e.g., one such added infusion of light was an algebraic expression, as if this necessarily has any more salience than without;

“If a people (different states, different countries different national persuasions) believe in X and do not believe in Y, how/what would be the motivation to change from X to Y or Y to X ... what might be the "Z" factor tipping the ideological scale towards a reconciliation - one leading to shared values and a reformation of long held, differences, grievances and conflicts, to a better scheme deployed in human affairs?

Between nation-states (countries) within their sovereign sphere, within (and between) families, between members of different political persuasions and the variety of other ways we identify and also, ironically segregate until some take the risk to integrate.

Asking too much, perhaps, why not take this mind exercise further as moving forward would require some pathway currently unavailable. Swapping values as one might with clothes is of course impractical, however, and perhaps just as impractical, what if, for a week or a month or longer (as mutually agreed), person's with opposing views and values were to protect and defend the other's values contrary to their own? After the experiment concluded, would each person's original values and positions be hardened, weakened or no perceptible change - again, what is that "Z" factor that just might move the intransigent conflicts and divisions out of their current gridlock?

very thankful things are not worse, but just as disappointed things are not better.

How difficult is achieving comity and amity, while losing animus and arrogance, when trying to tie knots. Do we have different listening thresholds masked by our psychological defenses (social self-preservation) where the ticking, ticking sounds of shared dangers and catastrophes, are outside the boundaries of human capacity to agree to agree and not disagree at our own peril?

I am very thankful things are not worse but would prefer comity than amity.

All generations pass on to the next, both positive and uniquely human contributions, as well as that which potentially ends survival, as we know it. Although whatever generation born into, all contend with a similar transferal of values, beliefs and extending the essence of all matter of being.

Understanding imperfection and the defects of the species often seems closer to a koan than a successful and effective solution.

very thankful things are not worse but would prefer more certain clarity on reducing human misery.

Returning to koan (I think) ... what is the sound of another Fentanyl victim dying alone, or the next body deep under the ruins of its bombed out city (and home) unable to audibly imprint, when Combat Search And Rescue (CSAR) teams step just a few feet, just a few, precious minutes from success. What is the sound of the introspection of desperation or that of exhilaration? What is the sound of introspection?

very thankful all things do not require the acuity and affinity for koan resolution.

Where will we be 40,000,000 years from now?

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thankful things are not always by the numbers ...

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Another mass shooting, seems like Thanksgiving didn’t arrive soon enough.

Fentanyl, had to read the banner on the digitized screen as wasn’t sure how to spell it, other than curse be damned … .

Recently, reviewing a medical report from surgery of mine several-years ago, my glance lit upon a word not familiar with at that time. It was cursively entered in the doctor’s post-op summary notes - the same Fentanyl (or concoction thereof) administered to me for sedation, surely I must have signed a consent form?

In the above, I am thankful my usage was restricted to about twenty minutes of a controlled drip and not a struggle for life’s sanctity confronting the next overdose - international makes it global, China manufacturing, Mexico’s distribution and the consumers of the product in the United States and elsewhere not knowing or knowing only too well, exceeding certain warnings can be the final warning executed.

thankful to be alive ... and okay to repeat and repeat, without having to explain ... thankful for all who have read, my humble gratitude.

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