There are a number of reasons that I don't care much for Thanksgiving. One of them is that I have a genetic resistance to being told to do anything, and I resent being told that Thanksgiving is the day when I have to be grateful. I'm grateful for many things, on many days, because I choose to be, not because the calendar tells me that I have to. So, on that contrarian note, I think that my post this weekend should be about some things for which I am NOT grateful. Chalk it up to my effort to achieve balance in the universe.
1. I am not grateful that that, possibly fifteen years ago, I arrived in New York one day about an hour early to hear Arthur Miller speak about playwriting, and so I went into a coffee shop next door to kill some time, and there, sitting alone at a table and doing absolutely nothing other than drinking his cup of coffee, was ARTHUR MILLER HIMSELF, and I was so paralyzed by shyness/fear/confusion that I went and sat by myself at another table for the entire time, and missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet him.
2. I am not grateful that, half an hour ago, I failed to win a KidLit Cares auction for a critique by Wendy Lamb of the first three chapters of a novel.
3. I am not grateful that the human race is well on its way to destroying its own environment and, for some reason, thinks that short-term financial gains are more important.
4. I am not grateful that Alan Turing, the genius who during World War II cracked the Germans' fiendishly difficult Enigma code, was later hounded by his own government into committing suicide at age 42 because of his homosexuality.
5. I am not grateful for the invention of chewing gum.
6. I am not grateful that my father died at a time when he and I were on bad terms, and that I never had the opportunity to try to reconcile with him.
That's it for now. Please feel free to leave comments about things, large and small, for which you are ungrateful. Let me know I'm not the only one! And then I'll do a gratitude post in, maybe, July.
I am not grateful for diseases like RA that come to a 17 year old in the night and stay forever getting worse and worse every year.
ReplyDeleteBut chewing gum? I LOVE chewing gum.
Genevieve, neither am I grateful that chronic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis randomly afflict good people. Thank you for commenting, and I hope that you nonetheless have a lot to be grateful for.
DeleteThere are so many things I am not grateful for that I can barely bear to read my list. But here's one thing: I am not grateful for the fact that our parents fostered my brother's and my dislike of each other so we didn't really get to know one another till we were well into our 40's. (In July I could write how I am grateful that my brother and I are now friends and even have engaged in a little collaborative creativity!)
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Thank you for commenting, and especially for sharing the happy ending (even though it's still Txgiving weekend). Very brave of you and your brother to go ahead and change the narrative.
DeleteSusan, I am SO with you the "forced thankfulness" thing. I, too, am someone who abhors "forced" anything, and this includes ALL holidays.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was much younger, I was part of all that and didn't mind it; I enjoyed most of it, in fact, because my life had less/different demands and my perspective was young, too. But more and more time was wasted, increasing over the years, and I saw things much more clearly, part of which was the fact that I had better things to do than worry about decorating for any of them or forced gift lists and money spent. Now, when I choose to "do" any holiday, it's simply to enjoy family and friends---and food!---but I don't actually celebrate holidays of any kind for what they signify.
As far as gratefulness---I have SO many things to be grateful for, but won't list them here :) As far as the things I'm UNgraterful for? Oh, the list is long, sad and aggravating! I won't list them, but to me it all comes down to what's at the core of all those things: the self-serving nature of way too many people. It is at the root of all that's bad in the world. Ever since man first thought he knew better than God, we started our own downward spiral and look what it's gotten us :(
And I hate chewing gum, too! lol Especially when chewed by "cows!" lol
Hey Donna, thank you for sharing my hatred for gum, and my anti-forced-celebration stance. We waste so much time doing meaningless things we don't want to do, for fear of being criticized. If we try instead to focus on what's really important, we'll have fewer regrets. Thanks for checking in!
DeleteRe #2 on your list. Do you read the Adventures in YA Publishing blog? They have a ton of great articles on writing (some by YA authors). They also have a "first five pages workshop" once a month that you might be interested in. Not as good as the first 3 chapters, but still might be fun/helpful: http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/p/contests-workshops.html
ReplyDelete