Thankful

In homes across America, many will be sitting down to a feast with friends and family. Any many of those people will preface their meal by thanking God for the meal and bringing everyone together. I will be getting together with family and loved ones alike, but I will not be giving thanks to any deity. While some are just thankful to God, I will be thankful for much more than the imaginary being the multitudes will thank for the cranberry sauce that will likely stay half untouched.

I may not give grace to a god, but I do feel I have much to be thankful for. I am thankful for those that actually prepared the meal before us. Be it my parents, wife or mother-in-law, hard work went into preparing a meal for all to enjoy. The table full of food did not come about of it's own making. Long hours of cooking and expertise made it happen.

I am thankful that we are lucky enough to share this meal together, while others are forced to go without. We may not be rich, but many don't realize just how good they have it. For some, the worry is whether to have turkey or ham, but there are those that don't even know where their next meal will be coming from.

I am also thankful for the men and women who grew the crops and reaped the harvest. As well as those who cared for and raised the livestock. Their long days made today's meal possible in their own way.

I am thankful for a star. One long since gone, yet who's remains we see each and every day. The death of that ancient high-mass star fortified this area of the Milkyway. I am thankful that the law of gravity caused those ingredients to coalesce as they did. Forming are small home star and the planetary system surrounding it.

I am thankful of the dawn of the first self replicators, who started off the long and unbroken evolutionary train that lead to us and all the life around us.

I am thankful for my parents. They have given me all the love and support I ever needed. All the way along my journey from a single cell, to the person I am today, they have always been there, and i love them for that.

And I am thankful for my beautiful wife. Yes, she may have played her part with today's meal. But she has given me so much more... the gift of her love. I will stand by her for the rest of my days and love her more and more with each passing year. I am so incredibly thankful that we found one another. My life has been ever changed since that day, and I never want to turn those days back.

But what is the thing that I am most thankful for? Well, it isn't really a thing, but a fact. The fact that none of this had to happen. Not the Sun, not the Earth, my experiences, those i love, and even myself. None of that ever had to come to pass. And I very easily could have not been. If the sperm that half of my genes came from had been slightly late, there would be a different me standing here in mt stead. Change one thing and the entirety or my life and my experiences could simply melt away into nothingness. Things didn't have to happen as they did, but here we are. And I think that's something to be amazingly thankful for.


-Brain Hulk

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