Count you blessings. Name them one by one
We are blessed to live on the northern half of the American Continent with its generally temperate climate (well, except for occasional blizzards, hurricanes, and tornadoes), along with abundant natural resources, to include, oil, coal, and natural gas. Indeed, a tiny fraction of our population, our farmers and ranchers, can and do feed the world. We enjoy an abundance of creative, inventive minds. For example, the Wright Brothers, albeit some brilliant minds are imported. For example: Elon Musk. Either way, the USA leads the world in science and in medicine.
We have, until 2021, enjoyed a robust form of free-market Capitalism that raised the overall American standard of living to be the envy of the rest of the world. Admittedly, our economy and way of life are currently under attack by a virulent form of secular Socialism in the hands of political opportunists. But that, too, should pass; provided the electorate and reality should somehow become reacquainted -- a process that used to be carried out by the now disgraced MSM and by the newly exposed Twitter, working as a propaganda agent for the current government. Fortunately, the American Body Politic has ways of correcting itself by alternate swings to the Left and to the Right and, generally, finding a point more or less at the political Center.
Many of us, born in the Great Depression and old enough to have childhood memories of WWII, are still in awe of all that has happened in our lifetimes. Can you believe the last of the Boeing 747s just rolled off the assembly line? But better airliners are sure to follow. Yet, for current generations, our storied past seems like, well...just a tiresome story that does not draw as many clicks as Harry and Meghan or Kanye and Kim. Trivial matters.
Far more important are access to clean air, to clean water, to salt (the rock we must eat to prevent dehydration), to food, and now, to electricity without which modern society cannot function. To electricity one should add indoor plumbing and efficient waste management systems. Pray the current and future generations will focus more on these essential needs.
For all these advantages we should be grateful. Just as this writer is grateful to the readers of this newspaper column who are kind enough to send words of encouragement and suggestions for future columns. To them, and to one and all, here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
Suggested reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, 1997. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough, 2016.
©2022. William Hamilton
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