Latest / Wanzology / Giving Thanks
Transcript
- Giving Thanks ”Just be thankful for what you've got, though you may not drive a great big Cadillac diamond in the back. Sunroof, top dig in the scene with a lean, Ooh-Ooh…” Hey, what's going on? How you doing? Welcome to another episode of WANZOLOGY, I am your host, The Wanz, and it is Thanksgiving week and I thought it would be appropriate to have the topic be something in the realm of giving thanks, because it doesn't matter how much you have or have not. I dare you, I double dog dear you to find something, one thing at least that you're thankful for. I am going to try to remind you how good you actually have it. As we all know, Thanksgiving is a tradition that's celebrated in the United States of America going back all the way to the pilgrims. The natives helped all these pilgrims not die over a winter by showing them how to cook food and sharing a meal. Now, hundreds of years later, that spirit of comradery, of cooperation, is gone for the most part, it's disappeared. Now Thanksgiving is, well, it used to be the start of the Christmas season. Now it's kind of like a third of the way through the Christmas season. This is the first year, I think that it's been Black Friday since November 1st. So it was all dark on Halloween and then the next day it became Black Friday everywhere…nuts. But in the spirit of what the holiday is about, I question whether we, you, me, others, really appreciate how well we've got it compared to other places in the world, other people in the world. I cannot stress enough that if you are listening in the United States of America or any of its territories, you've got it a lot better than almost anybody else in the world, don't think so? Hmm. Well, I might be a little jaded, I might be a little privileged, I don't live badly, I'm, I'm middle class. I'm lower middle class, but I'm still middle class, and I'm close enough to the bottom to remember what it was like to have been there, and I'm far enough away from the top to realize why I never want to be there again. It's just not for me. I'm not saying it's bad either one of them is a good place to be, being anywhere is a good place to be. Come on. How's the saying go? “Better to be seen than viewed”, because usually when you're being viewed it's at a funeral…yours. So it's better to be seen. I like being seen. I don't really hate on social media very much because it's a way of keeping in touch with people that you normally would not be able to keep in touch with. And I'm not saying that you gotta like be buddy, buddy, friend, friend all the time, no, they post something, you see what's going on. I've watched. Numerous of my high school friends raise their kids and now are becoming grandparents. They've worked their jobs and they're retiring. I've seen many, a friend of mine from college, same thing, get a family, they have kids buy houses, go on trips, go to Europe and all sorts of places, right? Have all these adventures. I have a piano player friend of mine, he and his wife, they live in Spain, that's where they live. He used to live in Ellensburg, Ellensburg, Washington. But I kid, I kid. Do me a favor. Look around right now, look around you, wherever you are. Maybe you're in your car, maybe you're on a bicycle, maybe you're just sitting and chilling. Maybe you're at a coffee shop, I don't knowut wherever you are, look around and see who's around. If anybody is around. If you're indoors, look around and see, what are the other people doing? What are all the people on the outside, you're outside like on a bike and you're riding a trail, you're riding along and it's like there are other people. What do you think about those other people? What are they doing? How do they look? Now consider this, you can look around where you're at and it's okay, it's not horrible, right? It's not the ghetto, it's not The Outback, it's not the slums of South Africa, is it? Maybe it is, I don't know. The whole point is that you get to see this, you get to see them, and they get to see you. I've found the gift of life is being able to participate, to have a conscience every day, to have people to share whatever you're sharing, be it public transportation or an elevator, or just a sidewalk, or to have people near you, to have electronic devices, to have the privilege of electricity, period, food, shelter. Maybe you have a job and may not like the job, but you still get paid and that allows you to have your Netflix or your phone and your Reddit and all the things that you have, and a lot of people don't have those things. I used to take it upon myself on Thanksgiving to walk around in downtown Seattle looking for people who were on the streets. I didn't have a lot of money. I didn't have money to give them, but the thing that I could give them is just a, “Hey, how you doing? You okay?”, and you would not believe the response that I would get. It was an appreciation that is unique because street people are, they're different, right? And a lot of people ignore them. They are ignored a lot. You gotta have a tough skin to live on the street because it appears that nobody cares about you at all. It appears as if you are in the way and undesired all the time. It appears that you are a throwaway, that you don't really count when you watch people who live on the streets, it's sad. Yes, it can be seeing someone who's barely able to walk, having to push a full shopping cart full of everything that they fricking own, and they really don't have a closet. They don't have a room to put it in. They sleep outside at night. They eat whatever people give them or what they can scrounge. There are a lot of people who have no idea, no idea how hard it is to be poor, to live on the streets. Being poor is a lot of work. Being an under earner is worse. I've been both. It's a lot of work, always having to either work, rest, look for a job, or be in between going to do one of those things and every once in a while you give yourself a break and maybe you, uh, borrow some money from a friend and you actually go see a band or something like that. Somebody buys you a couple of beers and for a few hours you kind of forget that you're not like everybody else in the room and when that night is over. Everybody else is driving away or waiting for their Uber or Lyft, and you're kind of walking off hoping nobody sees you because you don't have a ride, you don't have a house or an apartment. You don't have a room. You might have a tent, but even if you don't have a tent, you might find a doorway. God help you if somebody took your blankets that you stashed and it's raining and it's November and it's cold. I can only imagine how hard it is to be thankful in those instances. As bad as my life gets sometimes or how I perceive it to be bad, I almost always say the same thing, “Well, better to be looking down at the grass than up at the roots.” I'm privileged to be here. I'm privileged to be above ground. I don't have a disability. I don't have serious mental deficiencies. I have all my fingers and toes. I can be grateful every single day and usually am 'cause the first thing I do when I wake up, I take inventory all five senses. If all five senses work, I've got a chance. I have the opportunity. For what you ask? Anything. Life is like lotto, you kinda have to be here in order to win. Life is a verb. You have to do some stuff, else life passes you by. How you spend your time is how you spend your time. But keep in mind, it's the most valuable thing that you have for two reasons: one, you can't replace it. You can't go back to that job that you lost and figure out a way to stay there. You can't pick another profession, you can't rewind a day. Number two: nobody knows how much they have. Nobody knows how much time anyone has. Mom used to say, “You know, if God wants to talk to ya, you can't put him on hold.” That's damn right. I remember talking to my father on a Friday afternoon talking about what I was gonna do when I came down the next day to do some work in the yard and help out around there and I was awakened by my phone at 20 after eight on the Saturday morning, and it was my sister telling me that our father had passed away overnight. I had just talked to him Friday afternoon and last thing I said to him is, “I love you, Pop.”, and last thing he said to me was, “Love you too, Boi-San. See you tomorrow.” So, while you're here listening to this, I would like you to try to consider one thing. Life may not be all that you want it to be, but it is life. You are here. I'm grateful you are here. I'm grateful that you're listening. I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to speak and be listened to, even if it's by one person. It's a privilege. Doing what I do is a privilege, and this isn't all that I do. I mean, I have kids, I have grandkids, I have a lot of friends.And I'm there for all of them when I can be, and that is a privilege, right? Think about the people that you don't like. You're still here to ‘not’ like them. You are above ground. The blessing sometimes is just being able to breathe, walk, see, hear, smell, taste. Life is very, very complicated. But it's those simple things we tend to forget about. So for just a moment, consider what it would be like not having one or more of the five senses you have. If you've got on fairly new clothes, what would it be like if those were the only clothes you owned? What would it be like if you had no place to hang any other clothes? What if you didn't have a soft, dry, warm place to sleep? What if you were always, always hungry, always stressed outou never know who's gonna try to take whatever it is that you have. What would it be like constantly living in fear? urvival, always being able to survive. Is your life like that now? Really? If you think it is, go walk around your downtown, I guarantee you, you won't have to walk far and you'll see the difference. And in that space between you and that other person, look at all the things that could have happened to you so that you ended up like them. Because I'm pretty sure they've given up looking at all the things that could have happened to them so that they'd end up like you. People, like you, us, them, we don't really give a shit to be honest. We don't care for them as we should, but that's a whole ‘nother topic. For now. Take a minute and be grateful. Be thankful because no matter how bad things are for you right now, they could be much, much worse. I am really, really grateful. I have the privilege to speak with you, not only today, but every Wednesday. Hopefully, some of the things that I say don't sound half bad. In fact, I really hope they sound really good. Keep breathing, take care of yourself. Do something good for yourself, then go do it for someone else. I'll talk to you next week, later.