Thanksgiving is upon us. Despite this being one of the worst years ever, there remains much to be thankful for.
3. Count your blessings
You haven’t missed 1 or 2. I may have recounted this story here before, but when I returned to my home state after separating from the U.S. Air Force as a JAG, I was required to take the “new lawyer” training provided by the Kentucky Bar Association.
My memory is that the first speaker began with the declaration:
Congratulations! You’ve just entered a profession that dramatically increases your risk for substance abuse, divorce, and suicide.
Unfortunately, the stats back him up.
As an antidote, one of the last speakers distilled down his wisdom to three key things for living a happy life.
Number 3 was “Count your blessings.”
So, following that edict in the hopes of increasing the happiness in my life, here is a non-exhaustive list of things for which I’m happy during what has otherwise been the crappiest year of my almost half-decade of living.
COVID-19 VaccineS are Imminent
When asked each year, what she is thankful for, my mother always begins by saying she is thankful for her health and the health of her family and loved ones. I have on occasion groaned as it seemed such a pat answer. Of course, she’s thankful for her health. Everyone is thankful for their health.
But, I expect we’re all a little more thankful for our health in the age of the coronavirus.
Moreover, there really is a light at the end of the 2020 tunnel.
Not just one, but multiple COVID-19 vaccines have proven successful in multiple clinical trials and are now being considered for emergency authorization by the FDA. Public Health officials expect that a vaccine, or more likely, multiple vaccines, will be available by December of this year.
Of course, the initial batches will be prioritized to front line health workers and the elderly, the two groups most at risk for either contracting or dying from the virus.
The rest of us, though, can reasonably expect to be vaccinated before July 4, 2021. And, if most of us do get vaccinated, then we may reclaim our independence from this damn virus.
We may be able to again put a man on the moon!
Don’t be mislead by the subheading. I am not celebrating some proposal by Elon Musk to send tourists to the moon via SpaceX.
Rather, the development of not just one, but multiple vaccines, for COVID-19 happening in a matter of months suggests that we still can do great, BIG things.
The average timeframe for the development of a vaccine is in the measurement of years. This was a novel flu coronavirus. Even with the long-existing flu, the vaccine development each year that is the “flu shot” is a “best-guess” combination of the various strands that the researchers expect will be the most virulent during flu season. So, to take this novel coronavirus and develop a vaccine not in the span of years, but in the span of months, is astounding!
Family
While the lockdown and mitigation measures have had a decidedly unsettling effect on many–divorces, ended relationships, and withered relationships from lack of contact–I hope for you the lockdown resulted in you being grateful for the family you have, as it did for me.
In my immediate, nuclear family, I am blessed with two teenagers who have bitched about what they’ve been put through a great deal less than I certainly would have at their age. Sure, there is the justified venting about the “stupid virus” and how they both wish this whole thing “could just be over.” We all feel that way. But, they have been troopers and their mom has gratefully operated at the same risk-level that I’m comfortable with–something many couples cannot say.
Equally, my mother, due to her age, is in the high risk category, but has thus far been spared any infection. So, too, with my two brothers, both of whom are in the medical field and are far more exposed than I have been, but, thankfully, have also avoided infection.
It is my wish that your family has been spared, or, if it has not, that your loved ones have recovered. And, sadly, for those who had the worst of this pandemic, I hope you have found the support you need and deserve to provide healing and comfort.
Bandwidth
There is never a good time for a pandemic. If offered the choice of when to have a global, deadly, infectious disease, I would answer, “NEVER!” every time.
But, sometimes, we should be thankful for avoiding worse alternatives.
Imagine how terrible this disease would have been had we been back in the time of the previous flu pandemic, in 1918. When there was not an easy method for mass distribution of information. When supply lines would take months just for regular supplies, much less having to manufacturer and distribute massive amounts of personal protective equipment.
And, when there was no internet or streaming services.
We don’t have to time travel all the way back over a century.
Just imagine what your life would be like if this happened in 1995, just 25 years ago, my first year of law school.
For those alive then, we are all hearing the annoying chirping and clicking of dial up before hearing “Hello. You’ve got mail” on our AOL accounts.
Good gosh, imagine the hell that would’ve been on-line learning in that era.
Then, imagine you couldn’t go to the movies, nor could you stream movies. What movie would you have risked death to rent from Blockbuster?
So, thank goodness for Moore’s law and the progress of technology providing us the bandwidth for on-line classes, work Zoom meetings, and virtual happy hours.
Speaking of which …
But, always, fine bourbon
That’s the title of the history of Pappy Van Winkle, considered by many one of the best bourbons distilled in my home state of Kentucky.
Personally, I’m thankful for the soothing effects of bourbon. Considering Prohibition was passed during the Spanish Flu pandemic, what in the hell was America thinking???
Good news during the pandemic
Here is a list of the blog posts I published this year sharing some of the good news that happened during/despite the pandemic:
- Lowest number of expected births, but not for babies with Down syndrome
- On World Down Syndrome Day, I began serially publishing a book about Down syndrome and prenatal testing
- Disability advocates have been successful in having many states’ crisis standards of care revised to comply with disability rights law
- 2020 marked the 13th year that I’ve moderated a monthly call of Down syndrome advocates engaged in medical outreach and new and expectant parent support
- In the Spring, an archaeological site discovered remains of the earliest evidence of an individual with Down syndrome, showing that Down syndrome has always been part of the human story
- Regardless of your political persuasion, for the first time there is a Supreme Court Justice who is the parent of a child with Down syndrome
- Near the end of this year, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the first ever Ironman with Down syndrome!
Coda: Fear from Want; Desire is Suffering
The photo at the beginning of this post is an iconic painting by Norman Rockwell. It came to my mind initially as simply an emblematic image of the Thanksgiving meal. But, in researching it, I was reminded it was part of Rockwell’s four-part series depicting the “Four Freedoms” President Franklin Roosevelt had delineated in an address to Congress in 1941.
By way of reminder, the Four Freedoms FDR listed were:
- Freedom of Speech
- Freedom of Worship
- Freedom from Want
- Freedom from Fear
The last two Freedoms were especially challenged in this year of the coronavirus pandemic.
I know that I have not been free from fear for much of this year. I used to not fear going to the grocery, eating a meal at a restaurant, or using a public bathroom (beyond the normal fear associated with that last activity). Hopefully, the progress made in treatments and the vaccines will return us to our less fearful recent past, i.e. from February 2020 to every day before that in my lifetime.
Similarly, I expect everyone has not enjoyed Freedom from Want. Rather, I expect we have all wanted more than possibly any other year of our lives:
- Wanting to go to a live rock concert not in our cars
- Wanting to go to a movie theater
- Wanting to go out to eat with a large group
- Wanting to go to a conference
- Wanting to fly to a vacation
- Wanting to enjoy the Kentucky Derby like every other year
And on and on (and not to overlook the more primary Malthusian needs of want of a job, want of shelter, want of peace).
Throughout 2020 I’ve been reminded of the Buddhist teaching that “desire is suffering.” If you’re averse to Eastern philosophy, the teaching appears in Western wisdom in the answer to the question, “What’s the secret of unhappiness?” “Wanting just a little more.”
By wanting, and not getting the desired thing, we become frustrated, angry, disappointed. I want a new car, but I can’t afford one; now I’m unhappy with my present car. I want more money, but I don’t have it, and now I’m unhappy with the money I have. I want my kids to start behaving now, they are not, and now I’m unhappy with my kids’ behavior.
It is natural for us to want to be free from want. It’s the promised “American Dream.” Indeed, our economy is predicated on our desire for acquiring things.
And, therein, may lie the secret to experiencing the Freedom from Want. By abiding by the Buddhist teaching.
We’ve been forced to do without many normal wants due to the virus. We want to go out-to-eat, and instead settle for take-out without any ambiance of the restaurant. But, we tip just the same because we know the food workers need help. Or, we expand our own cooking capabilities, adding new favorites for our family to request.
We want to go out to the movies, but instead we discover new streaming series (Tiger King!) and our kids discover our favorites (Breakfast Club).
We want to go party with our friends, but instead we stay home and play a board game or finish a puzzle with our family; or, we pick up a new hobby; or, we start serially publishing a book that we’ve (I’ve) been sitting on for years.
I’m not trying to be an optimist or put lipstick on the pig that was 2020.
I’m just trying to follow the advice given as the antidote to becoming a drunk, divorced suicide.
So, count your blessings, even in the crappiest of years. 😉
Please share in the comments what you have been thankful for this year.
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