Gratitude Is Not a Synonym

I always get annoyed when mass media tells me what to do and what to feel. It's Thanksgiving, so our inner chips have programmed us to mouth platitudes of thankfulness to all who need to hear it. Well, maybe some of us are in the 1 percent. Maybe we are just loathsome pieces of indignant trash, but I don't see a lot of gratitude around here. It is more like relief.

Can you tell the difference? Try this: I am grateful that I have a job. (Many do not.)Why are you grateful? Here are some possible reasons:
1. I have insurance benefits. Oh, but wait? Aren't companies cutting benefits as they are just too costly? Aren't you paying more out of your check for higher copays and larger deductibles? What if you have two part time jobs? Sure, you have a job, but don't slip in the bathroom--no workman's comp for you. If you are disabled, you have to start hustling for that disability check, a guaranteed refusal the first time around. Meanwhile, everyone tells you that you are a deadbeat, sucking off the system. So you look for any job, anything that pays cash money. This leads to reason two:

2. I have security.  Really? Well, I'm damned. So job equals security. So does real estate, land and a spouse. With the housing market in the toilet and independent farmers crushed into dust, land takes on a different meaning. If I had land, I'd begin preparing for the collapse. My spouse would be in charge of getting shovels, building the fallout shelter, chopping wood, and maintaining the weapon supply. I would work on the Cookbook for the Apocalypse, starring spamloaf, featuring garbanzo casserole with a side of saltines. Now that is security.


3. I have a purpose. C'mon, no job can give you a purpose. You mean it takes time off of your hands. You have something to do. Now you don't have time to think about how it all is just one big scam, a way to lull you into a torpid stupor of flaccid brain waves that paint a straight line on the EKG. You have to search within for that sense of purpose.

So my point is this: don't get confused around this time of year. Wake up to the subliminal messages within the happy speak. Feel what you really feel, and do something about it. Gratitude gives us peace. Relief only means they haven't found us yet. We've all been brainwashed enough by the absurdity called the American Dream. We've been taught to care about this and dismiss that. Our relationships become commodities, not community. This holiday season is going to suck for a lot of people. Let's not make it worse by making them feel bad because they aren't like those Prozac addled families in all the ads. You have a right to your feelings. Be grateful that you can still feel them.