(no subject)
there was one thing about the day that just passed that was the same as all the other days like it. which was that i watched a lot of football. i like football enough that i watched the games today even though they weren't interesting on any level. but there was one thing i noticed today that confused me. that was the constant giving of thanks to and for the soldiers overseas. i'm sure this happened last year with afghanistan and whenever there's a thanksgiving during war. i mean, it's not at all surprising. i just never noticed it until today. and even if i had noticed it, the thing i never thought about was why give thanks to those people. really, what am i saying thank you for? for protecting me? from what? i don't understand. or maybe i'm saying thank you to god for making people who fight in the army? that seems unlikely. i tried all day to think of reasons to be grateful, but i couldn't do it. i mean, i don't fault them for being there, but all they're doing is a job they were told to do. yes, they're risking their lives, but, again, i don't see why i should thank them. i didn't ask them to. i don't really want them to. and anyway, if they didn't somebody else would. this actually turned out to be like a slate article i read one time. it's about calling firefighters heroes. all the giving thanks that goes on on the fourth thursday in november is almost unavoidably religious, which is mawkish but understandable. this thing with the soldiers is also mawkish, but incomprehensible. i guess i brought it all on myself by only watching football today. but at least i can thank it for giving me a reason to wake up on saturdays and sundays. and holidays in late november.
