Christopher Hodge

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Early Thanksgiving:
or...why shouldn't we always give thanks?
christopher hodge

Of course, American Thanksgiving is nearly two months away.  But I decided that I would go in early and make a list stating the things in which I am highly thankful.  Random.  These are not planned.  I am going to go by extreme stream of thought here.  As I was sitting in traffic this afternoon, I was given the urge to do this.  Stuck on the freeway at any given moment, you happen to look at people in thier cars: On the cellys, kids watching movies in the backseats of Suvs and Minivans, couples arguing, the occaisonal booger pickers and nose hair trimmers and eyebrow pluckers.   And you begin to see that we are all the same.  We may have different incomes, dreams, social backgrounds, education levels.  Yet, inherently we are all the same.  We were all created the same way. (eww)  We all lived in this fluid for some period.  (9 months is just a suggestion.  Hardly ever happens that way.)  And then we are placed in society.  Everyone gets different treatment.  And before you know it, you have billions of people around the world with different views, different status quo's. 

I sat there in my car and wondered what each of them were thinking.  And I wondered what personal pain, hurt, happiness and concerns they were having.

Then I began to think more.

I could definately create a thankfullness list.  And I may place that more around actual American Thanksgiving Day.

The thing for which I am most thankful is:

the differences in all of us. 

It is so encouraging to live a life open to the vastness of human unity.

We definately have a long way to go in understanding others and opening our hearts to the differences which divide us.  But as long as we pursue this, and live each day with the intent to get to know someone with a different perspective of life as we, then we will truly be happy and we will grow smarter and our lives will become so much more relevant. 

selah.