things to be thankful for?

i somehow found a blog post where a midwestern-lutheran-
mother-of-two said she needed to stop moping about her sick kids and car problems, and focus on what she was thankful for. in addition to "fall" and "two wonderful children," this bulleted list included bagels and cream cheese, electricity, miami dolphins football, and mysterys [sic].

[cough] ahem. [puke a little in my mouth]

(the amish have NOTHING to be grateful for, clearly).

in tenth grade i had one short semester of russian language, before i transferred to a new high school that didn't offer it (oh well, sasha was gone, defecting to canada or something. sigh). anyhoo, i remember having to do some kind of report on aleksandr solzhenitsyn, a russian writer famous for novels centered around his experiences in a soviet gulag. later, in a book of blessings my parents have, i found this quote from him, which sums up how i'm trying to keep my dissatisfaction with life right now in goddamn perspective (i'm all about swearing lately -- it might pass):

It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.