edward fox’s reality

Henry Ward Beecher stated this:

“A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.”

Now, let’s not be sexist, so we’ll assume “he” means he or she. With that logic in mind, let’s ask ourselves this: Are we grateful?

First of all, happy Thanksgiving Eve. It’s not a real holiday, according to the U.S. Government, but if Christmas gets an eve, and the start of a new day at the end of a year, the day before such, gets an eve, then so shall Thanksgiving. It seems like we are never satisfied with what we have, and I have fallen a victim to this, too. The way things are, how things are, how people are, it’s never good enough. If you are completely satisfied, that probably means you simply don’t care… or you’re one of very few people who have learned how to balance enjoyment of life with accomplishments of change, and that is a very powerful thing.

Sometimes, it may seem like life sucks. And frankly, I think it does. But we still have to remember what we have, and what we don’t have. We must remember who is still in our lives, and all the good times we have shared. It’s unfortunate that we forget about the past so quickly. To forget is one thing, and to idle, another.

Am I trying to sound extra smart? Perhaps. But it’s important to remember that the past cannot be erased, but it should not take control of us… It’s happened, and what’s happened, happened. We have to move on, but we should be grateful for what has happened in our lives. With that said, I again pose the question to everyone, including myself: are we grateful?

In a heated discussion as I sat in on a Government class this morning as a member of my Forensics team, I noticed that people don’t seem to be grateful for what they have in their lives at all. Their views are so twisted and shaped by what they have been taught that many seemed partially closed to new thoughts, opinions, or ideas, and others closed themselves off completely from everyone else’s opposing views.

What was the issue? Illegal immigration from Mexico. I actually ended up participating in the discussion because of the fact that so many comments were flying back and forth about the room that lacked any credibility that I was about to explode. So many contradicting comments in so little time–welcome to the junior college experience.

One student personally attacked me and said, “Who builds your bridges? Huh? They do the jobs that no one else wants. Who builds your bridges? HUH? HUH? I mean, look at you.” That was obviously a racially-loaded statement. Regardless of the facts that personal opinion should not be included when trying to prove a point, and that I’m Hispanic anyway (50% Salvadoran), just makes me wonder what point he was trying to prove. Was he trying to say I should be grateful that I have bridges that are being built by people who are illegally entering this country? Or perhaps, that I should I feel sorry for them and have sympathy for all their hard labor, which I never denied to begin with?

It wasn’t exactly clear. So how does this relate to being grateful? It didn’t seem like he was even grateful of what people from his country did, and made me feel like it was my responsibility to acknowledge the fact that they work for a living, just like 95% of the U.S. population over the age of 18. I didn’t understand where it was going, and attacking me personally with inaccurate information and baseless, racial accusations, are just as disappointing and devalue the debate entirely. Nonetheless, I maintained my composure…

…but I am grateful. I am grateful we have a diverse community. True, minorities may be suffering because of a lack of education, and the economy may suffer because the less education someone has, the less of a chance they have at making more money, thus less money being invested into the system, but this doesn’t mean I am ungrateful for any of their contributions to society and especially highways! I love me some new roadways and bridges. Ah, the bridges. The word “bridges” was mentioned in three separate arguments subsequently. I started the debate for the morning. Go me.

Normally, I type out a list of people I’m grateful for, but I’ll save that until Christmas, because some other fun things happen around Christmas time, too (James, you know what I am talking about :P), and plus, I don’t feel like I should be thankful only on a holiday with the word “thanks” in it… Shouldn’t that be a year-round thing?

Let’s stop getting caught up in our own busy world, and realize we are all part of the same society. Let’s start contributing, not just for our benefit, but for each other’s. This is something that should happen all the time. If we all did our part, then no parts would be left undone, and the world would feel more complete. We wouldn’t have the feeling like we need more…

Do we already have enough? I think so.

Take that for what it’s worth.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 10:29 pm and is filed under Holidays, Quotes, The Deep End. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.