A gratitude list

Yeah, I should have done this earlier. I kept thinking about it and just never did it. A list - not exhaustive, because I'll never think of EVERYTHING - but a list of things I'm thankful for, with commentary. This is not an ordered list, it's kind of stream-of-consciousness.

1. Indoor plumbing. I think of this because years ago when I was in college, a group of us were doing the "let's go around and list something we're grateful for" thing and I mentioned this. And they laughed at me. But I grew up with a mother who had not had running water in the house (small rural town in northern Michigan) until she was in high school, and her stories of having to fetch water (even to do things like make Kool-Aid) from the well, and the effort involved in bathing, and the whole outhouse-at-night thing makes me VERY grateful I have running water. All the more so now that I've lived short spans of time (most recently, the five or so days last fall when the line in to my house broke) without water or without hot water. It's an effort to carry water even for one person. Also, the whole water-hygiene thing, which becomes much more clear when you read about the cholera outbreaks in early Victorian London.

2. Likewise, hot water. It would be considerably easier to live without hot water than without indoor plumbing but I am still glad I do not have to. There are few things nicer after a chilly late-season day of fieldwork than to come home and be able to take a hot shower.

3. Electricity. Again, this is something people take for granted and don't really realize how important it is to us in the modern world until it's gone. People who choose to live without it (and there are some, and not just the Amish) can cope fine - but then they have the technologies (like lanterns) to be able to. Because those of us who use it generally don't plan for the power to be gone (though maybe we should, considering ice storms and the like), we don't have cooking apparatus or a way to keep food cold or even a good permanent way of lighting the house at night.

4. Climate control, or heat and air conditioning. And for me, air conditioning in the summer is almost more important than heat in the winter. I grew up without AC but then I grew up in northeastern Ohio, in a historically cooler decade, and in a house with good ventilation, large window fans, and a basement that was usually 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. I don't think I could live here without air conditioning.

5. The Internet. For all the talk that's made of how it's an isolating medium, and how it encourages people to be rude (I don't think so much it "encourages" as it "permits" - I know many people who are not rude on the internet, and I can genuinely say I have never had a serious troll comment here (and now I will spit and knock on wood to avoid jinxing myself). There are nice parts of the Internet for the nice people, like the old Adorablog used to say. Among the things I've gained from the Internet:

- lots of free knitting, crochet, quilting patterns

- a way to buy stuff and have it delivered to my door, especially important for stuff I can't get locally

- lots of friends....including some people I consider "friends" in the REAL sense, and not just "friends" in the Facebook or Twitter-follower sense. (I've met a couple people in real life that I initially met online, and I kind of hope to meet more of them in the future).

- easy, easy, easy access to research. I descend a bit into old fogeyness when I tell my students they will not fully appreciate how much an effort it was in the "before times" to find journal articles for a paper one was writing....having to go to the giant Biological Abstracts and scan for keywords, spending hours perusing tiny type, and then hunting down the bound articles on the shelf. Even interlibrary loan is easier and faster with the internet.

- inspiration in the form of others' blogs, or project pages on Ravelry, or whatever.

- the chance to "hear" others' voices - people who might otherwise never get a public forum can write a blog or online articles. And granted, some of these voices are solipsistic or sophomoric, but also, I don't have to read stuff that annoys me or that is so ungrammatical or poorly written that it is painful to read. (If I return to your site and leave an occasional comment, it means I appreciate your writing and point of view.)

- a way for a fundamentally shy person like me to interact with a lot of people without getting bogged down by my tendency to stammer (yes, I do) when I'm nervous meeting a new person, or my tendency to clam up when I'm either uncomfortable for some reason or when I'm talking to a guy I sort of like-like and I get all stupid and tongue-tied.

- lots and lots of pictures of funny or cute cats. Or tapirs, Or koalas. Or whatever. Or Ponies.

- a way to get some appreciation or sense of belonging. I'm not just knitting or quilting or whatever in a vacuum, with only input from people who know me locally or maybe the rare times I show a picture of something I made to family. I can post a picture of one of the Ponies I crochet on Ravelry and I get little "hearts" (meaning people like the project) or funny and nice comments. And yeah, I admit it, it's kind of narcissistic - but I like hearing appreciation when I do something clever or cute. And I don't know many other knitters or quilters locally so it's nice to have that online community.

6. That I had parents who valued learning and cared that I was interested in stuff. That I never heard ridicule in my own house for being a bit of an egghead or having oddball interests. (A memory was triggered by a comment stream elsewhere: when I was about 10, my mom read my part of "The Voyage of the HMS Beagle" - ostensibly to be "fair" as she was reading to my 5 year old brother - but I think she also wanted to share it with me.) Actually, having a slightly oddball egghead family is another thing I'm grateful for. I think my life is more interesting and I am more interesting to myself (even if I am not necessarily so to other people) for having grown up with parents who considered trips to National Parks an ideal vacation, and who had weekly trips to the library, and whose response, when they didn't know the answer to one of our questions was, "Let's try looking it up."

7. That my mom taught me to knit, sew, crochet, embroider, and cook. (Knowing how to cook, and liking to cook, especially, has served me well this past month, because I can look at a package of frozen green beans or something and go, "How can I make this different without adding any salt to it?") Again, I think being able to do all those things has made me more interesting to me.

8. That my parents are both still alive, and are in reasonably good health. I realize that that might not be so; a number of my friends have lost parents (or spouses) in recent years.

9. That my brother and sister-in-law had a kid. I think they're good parents, especially after observing them over break. Their kid is lucky.

10. That I am in reasonably good health, despite having to start taking two different prescription medications (more than doubling what I WAS taking) this year. Despite the hives and the hypertension (which is under decent control, now) I am still pretty healthy and strong and can do stuff like lift and carry heavy stuff and walk far distances. And I have to add that I'm grateful that the ONLY thing wrong with my health this fall was that my blood pressure was too high; there could have been any number of other things going on and this is probably one of the most manageable things.

11. That I found a doctor (and was brave enough to do so) who doesn't make a big issue out of my weight and who believes in talking with patients while they are fully dressed and sitting across from them in a chair, rather than wearing a paper gown and sitting on that table thing.

12. (I said this wasn't an ordered list; this one should be closer to the top if it were) That I live in a country and a culture that gives women - especially single women - an almost-unprecedented level of freedom. I can hold down a job. I can own a house and a car (a couple hundred years ago, I wouldn't even have owned the clothes on my back, at least in some countries). That I CAN consult with my father for advice when I am planning to do something (like invest money), but that I am not REQUIRED to. And that I can generally walk down a street without being harassed for being female (and if someone is boorish enough to cat-call me, I can either ignore it, or turn around and give him the stink-eye or something, without real fear of repercussion).

13. I have an interesting job that pays enough money for me to afford all the things I need and some of the things I want. And that my job is not so stressful that it actually makes me ill. And that I have a high level of job security.

14. That I have a good church home, with people who support each other and care about each other and even though we're small and money is always an issue and that sometimes leads people to say things they might not otherwise - still, we love each other and are, I think, good at upholding what the various Gospels say we should do.

15. That I do have faith. And that it's stronger than it was when I was younger. I had periods of doubt but currently I do not. I don't talk a lot about it on here but my faith is one thing that gives my life meaning and helps guide and direct me, not just in things like charitable giving but in how I treat people and how I react to situations.

16. That my dad taught me to avoid debt, that he taught me that it's better (for example) to buy the used car you can afford than go into debt for a fancy new one, and that you don't need things like fancy dinners out at restaurants or expensive shoes or designer clothes to matter in life. And I'm glad I took that lesson to heart even as I remember being teased in junior high for not having designer jeans. (Jordache, which was seen as a *terribly* exclusive brand when I was a kid, now is sold at the Wal-Mart. I wonder what the girls who tormented me for wearing Penney's brand jeans would think if they could have been thrust forward into the future and seen their "exclusive" jeans sold at a discount warehouse).

17. That I got a good education. I had good teachers coming up through school (some I remember: Mrs. Krause, fifth grade math; Mrs. Bynum, sixth grade math; Mr. Radie, sixth grade science and homeroom; Mrs. Turnblacer, seventh grade math and my spelling bee coach; Mr. Haas, eighth grade American History; Dr. Pryce, high school French; Mrs. Breuker, AP Bio; Mr. Conley, high school American History; Mr. Hansen, high school basic bio and Natural History (which was like a proto-ecology class, and probably where I really first got interested in academic ecology).) I liked school and I liked learning, and I still enjoy learning new stuff today - again, having new stuff to learn is a way to never be bored in life.