Thankful for...

I am thankful for a world with so many opportunities to learn. Think about it -- we have more access via more media to more knowledge than anytime ever before in the human experience. The average person can learn as much as they are able and care to, in any field. This has not been true for much of human history.

I am thankful that, for all of the knowledge available to us, there are still a great many mysteries worthy of consideration. Every answer raises new questions, keeping things lively and interesting.

I am thankful to live in a time and place where my beliefs and learning can be of my own devising, and not sharply delineated by "those in authority". We are free to believe as we please, study subjects which interest us, and to disagree with popular convention if we see fit to do so.

I am thankful to live in peace. I am perfectly aware that there are all too many places around the globe where peace is not the norm, but that is exactly my point: I live in a time and place where I have an assumption of peace. And just because I can assume that my life will be as peaceful tomorrow, I should never take it for granted.

I am thankful to live in a democracy. Sure, our system is not perfect, but it is a far sight better than most of the systems throughout history. The mere fact that we can criticize and disagree with our system would be a freedom undreamt of by many of our ancestors.

I am thankful, and continually marvel, to live in a time with such wonders as space travel, and microscopy, and x-rays, and telecommunications. Think about it -- for most of human history most people experienced little change, saw little that was new or outside of a few mile's radius of where they were born. But suddenly there are all of these amazing developments in a very tiny slice of human time, and of all possible times to be born I was here to see humans walk upon the moon and to see it as a child and be forever changed by that sight and thought. That I was present to see such a thing is to me a miracle as remarkable and precious as the amazingly narrow combination of factors which allows life to exist on this planet (neither too close nor too far, with a magnetic core to generate a screen against radiation, and a largish moon to create balance and tides). We have devices which can delve from the smallest to the largest, revealing the connections between them in the form of repeating shapes and patterns. We can peer inside living tissue, to gain further insights into the remarkable mechanisms which consitute life. We can instantly share our insights around the world, adding to the growing sum of human knowledge. In this, we are blessed beyond the wildest imaginings of most people in human history.