Michelle Kaplan

So Much to be Thankful For

Every year around this time, we are reminded that it’s time to reflect on our blessings and be thankful. However, I can’t help wondering about these things…

Is it the media, or me?

The chatter about the environment has reached epic proportions. You can’t turn on the TV without a reminder that the glaciers are melting too fast, the oceans are rising and warming, the buildings on Singer Island are about to fall into the sea, fires are burning in California, droughts, floods and recently I heard on NPR, (National Public Radio) that the rainforest will be halved by the year 2030 if people keep encroaching on it, burning it for clearing out space, and drought. It’s unsettling. I’ve even started recycling.

Maybe I’ve been a little too tuned into NPR lately or watching too much of the Discovery Channel. By the way, if you haven’t seen the Discovery Channel’s series Planet Earth, it is truly stunning and will air again beginning November 11, so get your TIVOs programmed. Be ready because as it takes your breath away, it will scare the pants off you when boring statistical information about global warming is brought to life…err, death.

The economy is troubling.

As oil is reaching the $100 a barrel mark, forget that after doing my budget, I’ve discovered that in a few months, it won’t pay to drive to my 9-5 job anymore. I won’t be able to afford it. The price of gas is climbing as the holidays are fast approaching, meaning less money for us to spend on Black Friday, or any other day. The housing market is in the toilet, and it doesn’t take Alan Greenspan to tell me that we have a recession in the making.

Speaking of oil and the environment, will someone please tell me how is that we can take a mass of metal that weighs 870,000 pounds and send it hurling through the air and put it gently down on a runway, anywhere in the world. Tell me how we can have these small gadgets that we can carry with us, that when a few numbers are pressed we can speak to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. These things also play music, movies, television and surf the Internet. Explain to me how we put a man on the moon 38 years ago…but for some reason, with all of this amazing technology that we have, we still can’t create a car engine that will free us from oil dependency and emissions? One would figure that by now, with the likes of Bill Gates, Al Gore, and duct tape, we’d have flying cars that shit trees, just to be all eco-friendly.

I really thought that in the twenty first century we’d be able to tell OPEC (Organization of The Petroleum Exploiting Countries…I mean Exporting Countries) where they can stick it. We have after all, that thing we call American Ingenuity.

Ok, it is November and I am reminded of things to be Thankful for…
Family, love them, hate them, debate them, they are, in the end all that matters.
Your health, if you have it, you probably don’t think about it until you or someone that matters to you doesn’t.
Love, another thing we take for granted. We’re told to let those we love know it. It’s not such a bad idea.
Friends, the family you get to chose.
The Boston Red Sox, what a ride it’s been. Thank you for all the excitement, the crazy fans and fun. I had to get that one in.
Freedom, and those who risk everything to ensure ours… Agree with the war, or not. I’ll be thinking of those families who are missing theirs.
I’m also thankful for the coming of 2008, new beginnings, new possibilities, new administration and again, new hope.