Five Thankings

Wednesday, November 21, 2012 at 10am
By John Friedman

Some thinkings on thankings:

  1. Politics. I’m grateful that the election came out the way it did, with pretty much every close call going the Dems’ way (yesterday Allen West began what I hope is his soldier’y fade-away, and may it please be quick). To look at just a small, but I believe quite significant slice of what this means, I’m thankful that the party whose leaders cannot say, “I believe in science” are, at the least, not currently ascendant, and are perhaps in the descendant. On the other side of things, I’m glad that there are people out there who have a big voice and who are also knowledgeable — say, the Bad Astronomer — and who use their voice to smartly make a good case for things like gravity and geology.

   2. The Wonder of the Physical Body. Aging brings with it an ever-more intimate sense of the wonder of our most precious precious, as friends and family and acquaintances all take their own unique, never-fully-knowable-by-anyone-else journey with their one true physical self. As a for-instance, I’m blessed with easy sleep while many friends are not; with time, and increasing disparities among us peers, I find myself more and more often thanking my lucky stars for this simple pleasure. For another instance, my folks, now in their late 80s, are going strong, while a dear friend’s also-dear canine friend, now in her early teens, is not likely to survive the year, the vet having uttered those terrifically sorrowful words, If I were you I’d put her . . .

   3. Ess Eff See A. I’m thankful for San Francisco and the Bay Area and, for that matter, all of Northern California. One way or another I’ve been plumbing these depths since the mid-70s and, to this day, most every day, I continue to be surprised and in utter awe of what we human beings, aided mightily by a beautiful chunk of Earth, hath wrought.

   4. Music. The art form I love most is the one which takes up time and vibrates air. I’m thankful that, for every weird-panted, not-much-music-in-him-as-best-I-can-tell smash-hitter of a Justin Bieber (his appearances and award-getting on the AMAs this week were frightening!), there is also someone out there with music oozing out of their every fiber (I found Pink‘s and No Doubt‘s AMA performances quite intriguing, as well as Psy’s, who seems to have glommed onto something that’s appreciated on a somewhat global scale — call it infectious joy maybe?), and then there are also all the people, everywhere, happily making music on a small scale for themselves and anyone within air-vibrating-distance.

  5. Clients and FHA’ing. It’s been a slow-build. It took until the Aughts. And now as we approach the Teens it’s very much fully formed. Being an FHA — a Financial Health Advisor (which I define as being a combo of financial coach, financial planner, financial manager and financial educator, coupled with a business model that’s all about pure advice, and which does not include product sales or asset-gathering) is for me very much a happy home, and an endeavoring that will, I am as sure as I can be, serve as my most-long-term, ’til-the-day-I-die endeavoring. So thanks to all the people who put their trust in me and who so graciously welcome me into their financial lives. Thanks, too, for those who helped with the new site (Jen and Otis) and to all my business acquaintances and business pals, both new and old, and those soon-to-be.

*  *  *

No, make that six thankings: I’m so very grateful for waking to hear my wife’s lovely laugh this morning, and most mornings, and for all that it implies and explies. It never gets old, HB . . .

 

About 650 words (about a seven-minute read, sans links)

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