UNITED STATES—With Thanksgiving fast approaching, you truly have to ask yourself the question “What are you thankful for? More importantly, are you actually thankful?” That is a question I have had to ask myself lately. Why? I think sometimes we complain about things in life that are not as important as we think they are.
You didn’t get a specific food item you wanted, you got stuck in traffic, I can keep listing things of nonimportance, but what’s the point? The matter I am trying to get across is there are people out there who have it so much worse. There are people out there with NO ROOF OVER THEIR HEAD or a PLACE TO SLEEP.
There are kids or families without a meal for dinner, while you might have an abundance of options. Some people don’t have heat, electricity or running water in their home. They can’t afford all of them, so they pick the one that matters most, and that’s a hard thing to imagine. There are those people moving around with one leg, no legs, one arm, no arms, those who are deaf, those who are blind, those who have no mobility.
Life can be so much rougher for many of us who complain about the senseless, stupid things day in and day out. What’s the point of this column? Gratitude. As Americans, we truly need to take a moment and reflect on how cherished some of us have it in life. We don’t have to worry about where our next meal is coming from. We have food in the fridge or cabinet, we can sleep comfortable at night without worrying about the cold weather potentially leading to our demise, I could keep listing if you would like?
Sometimes it just takes us locking eyes or hearing the story of someone in a worse position than us for the lightbulb to click. I could be doing so much more in life. For the first time ever, I donated to a local food bank. It has been something I’ve wanted to do for years. I always said I would do it, but I never did it until now.
I don’t know if it was me hearing about how urgent the food crisis was this year in America with SNAP benefits being halted and the price of groceries being so damn high, but I felt compelled in 2025 to do something. That tends to be the problem: too many of us are so selfish, if we just took a moment to think about others gosh, we could make this world a better place. If those of us who could give, just gave a little bit, the amount of change we could inflict would be of epic proportions.
So, before you start complaining today, tomorrow, next week, this month, a year from now, take a moment, think, reflect, and be grateful for what you have. There is that saying, “There is always someone out there who has it way worse than you.”
