....is thankful for Jason Fedie&Evelyn Jane; Mom & Dad; Bro and Sis; more family, friends, and college roomies; good wine, cheese, coffee, and food in general; this quiet house; books; poems; secular thinking; Netflix; science; feminism; recycling; the snow on the ground; the president; Earth; Google; Winona, MN; laughter; thinking; writing; flowers; and the sunlight filtering through the icy naked trees.
You see, there is this rumor that atheists don't appreciate what they have, that they are insensitive to the beauty of this world. One of my professors even once said that there is no way an atheist could be a poet! Wrong wrong wrong.And who am I thanking for all of these things? No one. Myself. You. Being thankful doesn't mean you have to thank someone or something. It just means you take the time to stop and appreciate everything around you.
Oh, and I really am thanking you, dear readers and blogger friends. It wouldn't be as fun to write without you.
I hope you and yours have a good Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks Andy. Same to you.
ReplyDeleteMotivation, gratitude, love, anger, frustration, forgiveness, and even resignation all come from within us. We feel those things... for better or worse; they are not placed within us. Certainly, we can choose which of these "seeds" to nurture, and that will lead us down various life paths...
ReplyDeleteNone of it requires religion or belief in a higher power. Since these feelings are human feelings, and all humans experience them regardless of their faith status, I've also never understood the argument saying atheists can't be thankful.
All being thankful requires is to take a moment of reflection, and to let gratitude into our lives.
Andrew - very well said. And thanks for that. :)
ReplyDeleteWhy not regard gratitude as related to evolution? We know circumstances have affected our survival (parents, health, our abilities to offer a service that others want to compensate us for, friends, weather, the environment, the ability to support others and help them thrive, and thereby continue the survival of society, and so on). We're not only "aware" of it, but we're also cognizant. We can follow sequences of events (history) that lead to the present, and extrapolate and predict actions of ourselves and others that will continue and improve what we have right now. It may not be fluffy and poetic, but that doesn't make it any less true. The traditional link between gratitude and "thanking the lord above" made me uncomfortable for years after I stopped believing in god, and it's nice to be able to come to terms with it.
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, I'm catching up...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice words!
There are seven in our immediate family. My wife, myself and five adult kids. Of the seven, five of us are atheists. I would say that all five are nicer, more thankful, more honest, more giving and more spiritual, than one of the christians for sure and equal with the other.