Thankfulness on #VeteransDay

I'm thankful today for the Veterans who have served to keep the U.S. the "land of the free and home of the brave." I'm particularly thankful to my father, father-in-law and uncle who served to defeat a fascist regime that threatened the free world. I hope our armed forces aren't again faced with that kind of challenge today or in the future.

be thankful for each break in the clouds

Photo by J. Harrington

As for other things I'm thankful for today, sometimes we just have to work with what we have. I'm thankful that the sky is still blue, I'd lost track with all the gray cloud cover; that there is still a sun in the sky, it's been awhile since we've seen it; and that it's no colder than it is. I'm trying, but failing, to be thankful that our persistent cloud cover keeps some residual heat from escaping into space. But, I'm thankful that the bitterly cold weather has motivated me, aided and abetted by the Better Half [BH], to undertake some long overdue indoor chores. There's a residual decluttering getting done now that the Daughter Person and Son-In-Law are established in their own abode and the weather is no longer "too nice to stay inside." (To be honest, while decluttering, we're still uncovering some things that go back years, to the time there was a  home based consulting business based in this house. We just haven't been able to bring ourselves to dispose of an overabundance of envelopes that "we might still use.")

I'm thankful that today the email inbox contained news of some upcoming climate change conversations, plus local Fridays for the Future events. I feel less frustrated, and a little less angry, when there's an opportunity to do something more about the major issues we face than just snipe about them on social media. I'm thankful I don't have to travel into the Twin Cities to be involved in helping to create a sustainable world that offers the prospect of a future worth having for the younger generations.

I'm thankful the BH is fixing split pea soup for tonight's dinner. I'm thankful that I finally found a "missing" book, a companion to Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac although, in the search process, I'm disappointed to discover I've once again acquired a duplicate copy of a different book because I've not yet (and may never) created a card catalogue of my library. If that turns out to be my biggest problem this week, I'll be grateful for that. In fact, each day I try to remember to be thankful for all the things that could have gone wrong, but didn't.

Facing It

By Yusef Komunyakaa

My black face fades,   

hiding inside the black granite.   

I said I wouldn't  

dammit: No tears.   

I'm stone. I'm flesh.   

My clouded reflection eyes me   

like a bird of prey, the profile of night   

slanted against morning. I turn   

this way—the stone lets me go.   

I turn that way—I'm inside   

the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

again, depending on the light   

to make a difference.   

I go down the 58,022 names,   

half-expecting to find   

my own in letters like smoke.   

I touch the name Andrew Johnson;   

I see the booby trap's white flash.   

Names shimmer on a woman's blouse   

but when she walks away   

the names stay on the wall.   

Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's   

wings cutting across my stare.   

The sky. A plane in the sky.   

A white vet's image floats   

closer to me, then his pale eyes   

look through mine. I'm a window.   

He's lost his right arm   

inside the stone. In the black mirror   

a woman’s trying to erase names:   

No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

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