GIVING THANKS

Our Human Capital

John Scott

 Human capital is the collective resources of an individual and the degree of capacity to bring them to bear for the highest good of all.

 Insight Seventy-One: Giving thanks.

In Canada, it is Thanksgiving weekend. Not sure what the big dinner will be, but our family will be all together for it, and that's what matters most.

Last weekend was our anniversary. We went out for dinner and got a table on a patio. The waiter gave us a menu of meals they had in the back. Somebody sourced all that food and ingredients from a few or many locations. Maybe the meat was local. Perhaps the olive oil came from the Mediterranean. I had a Trappist Ale from England. Who made the AMAZING Sticky Toffee Pudding, and thanks for the extra scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Going out for dinner was SO great! I hope I never again take for granted the pleasure and privilege of having a meal out.

My daughters are back to in-person school. I am pretty sure their enthusiasm and smiles aren't because they all of a sudden love school more. I am more confident that the way they light up when telling me about their new friends or playing basketball against another school without a mask (both teams double vaccinated) is because they are so grateful to be back in a social environment that they have longed for these past 18 months of the COVID pandemic.

A friend loaned me a book called Hello Darkness, My Old Friend by Sandford Greenberg. The book is an autobiography of Greenberg's life which has been well lived and very successful. When he was in university with his pal Art Garfunkel, he became blind, which reads as if it happened over a couple of weeks. However, Garfunkel and another friend helped him finish his degree, and Greenberg went on to be an inventor, worked in the White House for years, wrote books, and aspired to end blindness.

One scene that struck me was Greenberg coming out of the hospital in Buffalo, now effectively blind, and staying with his family. A few weeks before, he could see, and then he couldn't. Greenberg was sitting on a couch in despair about what the rest of his life would be like while hearing his family fussing around him, not sure what to say or how to act.

I just came back from walking my two red labs. I could see where their harnesses were, could grab the treats and poop bags. I could navigate easily through the gate and look for traffic as we crossed the road. I could see the nasty business and get it picked up in a bag. I could see the leaves on the trees and some flowers in my neighbour's garden. Going down an alleyway, we came across some people who wanted to meet the dogs. I could see the smile on their faces as the dogs wagged their tales.

Seeing all this and having that image in my mind of Greenberg sitting on the couch and blind for the first time, didn't entirely initiate joyful backflips down the alley like Jake in The Blues Brothers, but it did make me appreciate sight all the more.

How long is the list of things to be grateful for?

I love the song Amazing Grace. There is a brilliant metaphorical line, "Was blind, but now I see." Greenberg was sitting there and may have been thinking, "could see and now am blind."

The lesson for me of the book and his life or any life is what we can do with what we have and not be defined by what we don't have.

It seems to me Greenberg came to see a possible future despite his blindness that he pursued step by step, challenge by challenge.

I read a line in a book I was reading last night called A Fistful of Wisdom that struck me. It read, "Life belongs to those who love it."

To me, that means to live in appreciation of what we have. To intentionally look for the joy in life and living that we all deserve to experience. And once in a while, maybe even to be blown away by how much we have. And sometimes, to sit for a moment and think about being able to see.

May you fully appreciate what you have, give thanks this weekend, and live daily in heightened awareness of what is most important to you.

John