Thankful Thursday
Today is not an easy day to give thanks. Yesterday LK Madigan, who started Thankful Thursday, died. Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen are resisting the desire of their people for more freedom. Christchurch, New Zealand is suffering in the aftermath of a major earthquake.
And yet
There are things to be thankful for.
1) LK Madigan's life, the generosity of her spirit that prompted Thankful Thursday, and her two novels Flash Burnout and The Mermaid's Mirror. I never met Lisa, but her example of a life well and thoroughly lived will stay with me.
2) Shelterbox, and Maureen Johnson's campaign to raise funds for it yesterday. Shelterbox provides boxes containing a tent that will house ten, lightweight blankets, cooking pots and pans and a stove that can use a variety of fuels, all packed into one big storage box. Check out the details at the website. Rotary International works with Shelterbox, which was founded by a Rotarian, and at last year's conference, I had a chance to see a Shelterbox unpacked and set up. It's amazing, and the contents are super-durable. Shelterbox tents have been found still in use years later. Maureen's campaign continues today--if you'd like to feel a bit less helpless in the face of all that's going on in the world, this is a great way to do it.
3) After this afternoon my/our taxes will be out of my hands and in those of my more than capable accountant. I am not a math person, but for years I was the person who did the taxes, so I am truly grateful not to have to take on that headache any more.
4) The thermometer may show readings in the 30s F this afternoon. It's been a long, cold, dark (but not, thankfully, lonely) winter and I am more than ready for the ice to slowly melt.
5) Libraries and librarians. I've been feeling under the weather the past couple of days with some sort of virus--low-grade fever, aches, lack of appetite--and the stack of library books is a boon. I've finished Jonathan Safran Froer's Eating Animals, Adam Rapp's Punkzilla (expect a Reading Rave soon) and am now thoroughly enjoying Lisa Lutz's The Spellman Files. All of them are from local libraries. Providing us with books isn't always as easy as it seems, so I'm also grateful to those librarians who deal with book challenges, like that facing Cheryl Rainfield, which she posted about yesterday on her blog. For so many of us, books are how we make sense of lives that don't seem to match those of people around us. We owe our ability to find those books at our local libraries to librarians.
6) The Obama administration, for deciding it will not defend DOMA. If you know anything about me from reading this blog, you know that I believe equal rights means exactly that.
7) (added at 7:00 p.m.) Beverly Cleary was honored with the 2010 LA Times Robert Kirsch Award. Beverly Cleary is a long-time favorite of mine, for a reason slightly different from most people's. Pulling a new book off the shelf, opening it to read the flap copy, and reading "Quimby" there is an experience I will never forget. I'm not sure if seeing my name IN a book made me want to see my name ON a book, but I suspect it does have a lot to do with my preference for contemporary literature.
What are you thankful for this February day?