Today's gratitude is for the problems that I don't have.
There is revolution and/or civil war along most of the African coast of the Mediterranean from Tunisia to Libya to Egypt. Khaddifi ordered fighter plans to attack demonstrators. For the first time in 29 years, Iran sent warships through the Suez canal. Iraq and Afghanistan lack centralized government after years of American occupation. Malaria is still the leading cause of death around the world.
Russia, China and Australia had large crop failures due to drought. Prices for wheat, grains and rice have gone up 40% in the last year.
While there are patches of snow on the ground from a snow last night, the roads & sidewalks are bare and clear. That is nothing compared to the blizzard(s) that hit the Midwest, South and East coast this year. The snow we have is eye candy and not much of a problem.
I am grateful for living in such a stable part of the world in terms of weather, government, employment, monetary policy, water supply, food supply, energy and crime. There has never been a case of Malaria in Washington State that I know of.
The food supply here is so good that there are grain silos that store trainloads (not just train cars) of grain to be shipped off in humongous boatloads of grain to other places. The net increase on a bag of chips will be than 10% when the world grain prices went up 40%. So far those grain price increases have not even really shown up in US grocery stores.
There are a lot of BIG problems in the world that are not directly impacting my life. I am grateful that my problems are so simple as needing to stay sober, eat less and get more exercise. That may not get done, but at least I know I could improve the situation it if I worked at it. I was sober today, ate some raw veggies & salmon, and will work out now.
As Alice would say, "I have a classier set of problems today than I used to have".
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