Giving Thanks

Monday, November 30, 2020 at 3:42am

This post will be a departure from my previously stated intent of describing how the most recent Washington State lockdown has affected me. That post looked to me, a few days after writing it, to have been necessary in order to vent and work through my frustration, but it had not turned out to be so terribly necessary in terms of needing to be in the world.

Just after I had finished writing it, I noticed this post by Serdar Yegulalp over at Infinimata Press, and I was struck by its conclusion in particular. Why was I so down, when I have so much to be thankful for? Although the second lockdown represented the fourth major wrench thrown into my plans for maintaining my physical and mental health in the last year, it was a problem I was able to solve. This is how life works: situations change and we adapt.

I am thankful for my spouse, who challenges me creatively and perpetually broadens my horizons. I am thankful for my career, which continually provides me with interesting and complex problems. I am thankful to live in a world that provides me with the tools to hone my skills at writing and typography and the platforms for distributing my work with a minimum of bureaucratic friction. I am thankful for each day I am able to pick up a barbell and move heavy weights around, which, thanks to recent investments, will be most of them for the foreseeable future.