I actually only do these once every few years, looking back at the others. I see how my life has changed, how different things (except my heater) that I've been thankful for, different people, different jobs. I think it's a different button that I'm thankful for this year... the "off" button. I've realized that there are so many electronic gadgets at my house that I never really get around to doing the things that are really important. So I looked at what games I was playing online, "Bejeweled Blitz," for instance, and saw that it was serving no real purpose, that the learning curve was gone, so I stopped playing. I turned it off. True, there are some useless games I still play, like those on the GSN site, but only for a few minutes, like Solitare (which actually has a very useful application if it's 3AM and you're in a dorm room with no AC and sick as a dog...long story). It's like going to a Chinese Buffet. You stuff yourself, and you think you've enjoyed it, but you walk out feeling "blah" and 3 hours later, you're hungry again. Useless, but sometimes you just have a craving for an egg roll. So in moderation, uselessness is okay.
Or the Disney Channel shows I have watched. I think that has to do with the shut down of Shake It Up and the continuation of truly sorry shows on the station. So, I turned them off. I might one day download them and watch them, but right now, I'm content not to. I need to read all the books I have in my house, anyway. All these books, it's a sign of one's mortality. I see all the people donating books to the library every day, and I realize that, in doing so, I would be acknowledging my mortality, that I would never possibly get to all the books in my library, so why not get rid of them. May I live long enough to read all of them.
I'm thankful for the Nancy Guinn Library, and the Friends of the Library organization I belong to. I'm still in touch with the books that I love to sell, with the authors and titles that I've read over the years, and I feel the challenge of showing the public of Rockdale County how valuable a repository of books and other media is to everyone's lives. Here, in this building, is the knowledge we seek to grow, outside the meager education system we have currently. All those words, all those thoughts, and they sit on those shelves and in those computer banks, just waiting to be plucked out and processed in our minds. Woven like a quilt with all the other experiences and bytes of data jumbled like thread in our brains. And it's all there!!
I'm also thankful to Gwen for recruiting me for the organization, and for helping me to get a car when I needed one so badly. It allows me to walk all over this community of ours and see the beauty right beyond my own door. You can see pictures of all that in any number of blogs prior to this. I'm so thankful I live in a place with such diversity and beauty as Rockdale County. I should have been walking years ago.
I'm thankful for the conversations I've had with friends online, like Jacob, Chris, and Davis, giving me the chance to offer help and support to others. It's amazing to see people walking down those paths, working on their own dreams and goals. I've always been a helper, it's what I do. Use words and thoughts to help other people down that road toward whatever destination they have. I know Davis, in particular, will arrive at those mountain tops, and stand proudly at the culmination of his dreams. I only hope I can help.
So now I must go to bed, and rise tomorrow to face another Christmas shopping season at a bookstore, with all the hard work and joy that it brings. Only a month from now, it'll be a new year (well, almost) and time for new challenges, new opportunities, new paths to walk down. I will be thankful for the sun when it rises, that the warm air will pick up my feet and I shall walk those new roads, wherever they may take me.
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That was a really nice blog post, Denzil. Thanks for sharing your heart with us as always. It amazes me also seeing people chase their dreams and goals as well. The problem I have with this generation is they are often asked what they will be when they grow up not realizing that maybe they can do what they want to do right now. I highly admire these Disney Channel stars for using the gifts and talents that God has given them right now and not wait until they grow up to do it. I'm not just talking acting, but I am talking about all of these other gifts, like Ross Lynch singing with his siblings, or Bella Thorne and Zendaya dancing together. It's incredible that they have so many talents and that they are using them at such a young age. Again, thanks for a wonderful blog post, and I hope you end this year with a bang.
ReplyDeleteIf you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, they might say, "I want to be Famous." Without really knowing how to do it. And the problem is, being "famous" is now a career path. Let's take Sam Pottorff for example... the only thing he's known for is doing stupid stuff on Youtube. A total waste of talent, especially when you look at his magnificent look at San Diego through his camera (except you can't, cause he deleted most of his videos after getting too much attention, harassment and the like, and so his true talent is lost), he's a great film maker. He may or may not ever develop that talent. We won't know... he's too busy being famous... and, as it looks at the moment, experiencing the negative side of that. Now, developing a life skill, such as acting, like Davis has done, or preaching, or writing, or selling books... those are things that will bring *true* happiness. And if those skills, like acting,will make one of us famous, so be it. It is the idea of "fame" that is the biggest temptation, and if that becomes the goal, in and of itself, then they subject themselves to the great fall that happens when, standing upon the pinnacle of fame, someone pushes you off. You must stand upon your own abilities, not the fickle praise of others. The goal is the act itself, the product of acting, of writing, of singing, not the fame that goes along with it. I think that Davis has learned this. I hope that Zendaya and Selena Gomez and others have learned this lesson.
DeleteI hope so, too. Great points, Denzil. I wonder what happened to "I do what I love and I love what I do." Some people need to find a talent they love so much that they would be willing to do it for free, if you know what I mean. For some people, it is acting, but for some people, it's teaching, preaching, singing, etc., etc. But, either way, some people need to find what they love and do it just because they love it.
DeleteNicely done, Denzil!
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