A Thank-You Note Addressed "To Whom It May Concern"

A lot of subjects flashed through my mind when I was invited to write a Thanksgiving post. The slow, corrosive effects of greed. The holiday celebrations of Wall Street CEOs, golden parachutes rippling in the wind, and those of Americans who can't find work through no fault of their own. The generosity of the Native American who took in a group of dying settlers, saving them and losing his land in the process.

Or the story of a family that, like so many squatters and relatives, took over a house that they were only meant to occupy for a short while. Pretty soon they started acting like they owned the place, like they could do whatever they want with it - change it around, share it with their friends, leave a mess for others to clean up ...

You know. The Bushes.

Then there's the irony-rich first set of pardons the President issued this week. I mean, he actually pardoned someone convicted of ... killing bald eagles. What writer wouldn't give thanks for material like that?

But now doesn't seem like the time for negativity, or sarcasm, or snark. We're facing a crisis whose proportions we have yet to fully comprehend. As hackneyed as it may sound, this seems like a time for thinking positively. It seems like a time for putting aside old resentments and rivalries, a time for doing all we can. And like the old Elvis Costello song says, I'm not angry anymore.

So I thought about positive topics. John Lennon, for example, or the land that nurtures us (and which too many of us forget to thank.)

Or Gary Snyder, the poet laureate of this continent. In 1968 he called the single-family house "a box to capture the biped in," and this crisis shows how prophetic that comment was. A hundred million Americans enslaved to their mortgages. On a recent road trip I drove through Bakersfield, one of the hardest-hit real estate markets in California. "We have cash buyers," one billboard said.

There's a lot of human misery behind a sign like that. I thought I might give thanks for those who warned us that misery was coming, and who might show us the way out of it.

Then there's General Carter Ham. This four-star commander had the courage to admit publicly that he suffers from PTSD. Hopefully that will encourage more people in the military to come forward and seek help. Maybe it will help others in society do the same. Mental illness is stigmatized in a way that physical illness isn't, and that's wrong. That stigma's the result of our failure to understand that mind and body are a continuum, a matrix, an interconnected whole. It's an artifact of outmoded Manichean beliefs. Thank you, Gen. Ham.

It's also worth giving thanks just for the extraordinary privilege of being alive, for the chiarascuro unexpectedness of this existence and all its uncountable fascinating facets. You name it, we've got it: spiral galaxies and Art Deco and film noir and Boltzmann brains. We've even got 70's era garage-rock and country music from the Golden Triangle of Burma. Who could've thought up Lashio Thein Aung, the "Burmese Texan"? Or any of the other stuff we come across every day, if we bother to look?

That's the great thing about reality: it's endlessly inventive.

(Boltzmann brains are a theoretical possibility - living intelligences that appear randomly from the fluctuations of the universe, look around for an instant of self-awareness, that disappear back in the flux of existence.)

"The way to know God is to love many things," said Van Gogh. I'd thank God, but I don't believe in an anthropomorphic deity. Another kind? Maybe. I use the word "God" sometimes, but I'm just as happy to address my thanks to Her, Him, or Current Occupant. Or None of the Above. And I'm especially thankful for the beauty of mathematical laws. Want to say a prayer of admiration and thanksgiving to the universe? Here's one way: First, solve for x ...

What epitaph would you put on your tombstone? I think I might like this one: "Wow, that was interesting." Because it is pretty damn interesting, even if our allotted span isn't all that much longer than a Boltzmann brain's.

I can't shake the feeling that something big is happening in the world right now. Something really big. I don't know if it will be bad or good - or maybe it will be bad at first and then be good later. It works out that way sometimes. Or maybe I'm wrong, and a bunch of small things will keep happening one after another like they've been doing all along. But however it plays out, it will be interesting. And it will be a privilege to play whatever small part I'm assigned in dealing with it, shoulder to shoulder with everybody else. Because we'll be facing it together, in our common humanity and common membership in the web of living things.

That includes all of us, even those CEOs and the family in that big house.

So here's my shot of gratitude to you, Interconnected Universe. Or God, if I may call you that. If that doesn't work, I'll just direct this to "what is." Names don't really matter, and maybe I've got no business talking about this stuff anyway. I certainly can't claim any special insight. But on this 27th of November in 2008, for the record, and to whom it may concern: Thanks.

RJ Eskow blogs when he can at:

A Night Light
The Sentinel Effect: Healthcare Blog

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Comments

[jinjinpinti]

This, too, can be 'grokked' by the one mind.

[GrainOSand]

At times of great change, much about the world seems strange.
At times of great metamorphosis, some consult tealeaves, tarot cards, or the cracks in the shells of tortoises.
At times of great modification, there can arise much worry, fear, and frustration.
At these times, humans huddle close in serious and sober deliberation.

Is this the end, the beginning, or both?
Are we doomed to fail?
Are we close...to a breakthrough, of the type that starts us gloriously anew?
Will we rise up from the ashes of our mistakes?
Will we fall off the cliff?
Shall we continue down towards the ground at a breakneck fatal pace, and become dead cold and stiff?

No one knows what the future holds.
No one knows the directions that still forming winds will blow.
Thus, the trepidation some feel.
Thus, the emergence of that colloquialism, that solid advice -- Chill!
For that is what we must do!
We must take it easy and wait for the other shoe.
After it drops, if we find we are not on top -- that will be the judgment of our time.
When change comes, it will defeat the fantasy and delusion of the denying mind.

When change comes, it may bring justice for past crimes.
When change comes, it may expose the damage of decades of governmental malfeasance and lying.
Divine change is pregnant with possibility.
Ride the wave is all you can really do.
Trying to figure it out is in the realm of futility.

[Davwbaird]

something is afoot. big, profound, one for the ages, Good, really big, a time for putting aside old resentments and rivalries, beyond our understanding, finally.

[dobberdoss]

Oh there's "big things happening" alright, Lets see, hmmm one of the biggest is 10 trillion!

[TRYKER]

I have to agree with you RJ, something is afoot. I'm having physical sensations that come every day, a great buzz of excitement, vibrations...the cause hasn't revealed itself... but the source feels profound, I'm settling on Whom the Divine.

I'm imagining its about ushering in the restoration of our nation, our govt going to work FOR us -- eliminating the parts that worked AGAINST us and progress. Rehabbing America.
Or it could be a war...but it IS. something.
Maybe its the momentum building for Obama's team to hit the ground running. That means we would hear news early and often...that will be exciting...will be a lot of buzz in '09.
By the time Jan 20th gets here, we'll have been run ragged with anticipation and supplication. Oy, this delaying gratification!
That day will be one for the ages, millions will be in Washington, billions will be watching on TV.
Its a great time to be alive.

[plebeianswillrevolt]

if you think that was funny, try this...

[NoSillyName]

Good philosophy, Mr. Eskow. Thanks. Sometimes I need to be reminded that this too shall pass and that I need to remember the "Wow, this is interesting!" aspect of being alive.

[TMAN]

Mr Eskow, or to whom it may concern, thanks! I appreciate the honesty and the humanity.

[Dap]

Now... that's *STREAMING* consciousness, Agape.... without question. Makes Ones eyes well-up. All Aboard... the Love Train.

[breezyholler]

Of all the things for which I am thankful....I am most thankful for honest , reasonable people !!!!peace@wellness to all who care about the well being of others..