I finally wrestled a post out of my thoughts about the sale earlier this month, but it seems inappropriate to publish today. So, despite my usual resistance to traditional celebrations of holidays, instead I present this list of things which make my creative life possible for which I am thankful.
- A childhood surrounded by people who made things and fixed things, both out of a sense of thrift, and sheer enjoyment
- more life-changing books, found on trips to the public libraries in every city I have lived in, than I could possibly count
- the luck of having come into this world at a time and place where my basic needs were met and where I was enabled and encouraged to think beyond mere survival or diversion
- good health, enabled by good genetics and parenting, modern medicine, the economic ability to eat well, and a partner who cooks for me far better and more often than I ever could have dreamed of
- an excellent education, from my earliest childhood, which was financially supported by the state, local, and federal community in a way that seems to unfortunately be a thing of the past
- a parent who enabled me to attend a college which very much suited me and made me who I am, despite the fact that he and I might not always agree that it was really the most sensible thing
- a studio landlord who has refrained from raising my rent for thirteen years. I realize that what was always more than reasonable is now a mere token contribution to the electric bill
- a loving, supportive partner who is so like me and yet so unlike me that he is more suited to me than my younger, more cynical self was ever capable of imagining
- the unending parade of surprising things that the universe throws my way that keep me open-minded and prevent me from ever thinking too seriously that I know the extent of what is possible
tether 