Begin the Begin

  This is my first attempt at blogging.  Hopefully, I won't regret getting into it!  Let's start with why I chose the title.  I'm a big fan of Blur and all things Britpop and I took the name of my blog from Blur's 1994 album, Parklife.  Generally, this record contains many vignettes of suburban life in Britain, both good and bad.  Given my own status living in the suburbia of the United States, with experiences both good and bad, the title just stuck in my head. 
   For today, I'm trying to come up with something each day this month for which I am thankful in honor of the almost forgotten holiday of Thanksgiving.  So far, I've done pretty well in remembering to ponder them as well as post them on my Facebook page.  I think it is a good practice to consider the things that mean the most to us daily.   It gives us some perspective on who we are and what is most important to us.  My list  so far focuses heavily on my family and my faith but I'm trying to include the more mundane simple pleasures of humanity alongside the more important, life changing events for which one expresses gratitude.   Do I think the world is a better place because dark chocolate, African violets, raspberries, the Fender Telecaster, the Marshall amp, Ernest Hemingway, and Seattle exist (or existed as the case may be)?  As a matter of fact, I do.  I'm thankful to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for blessing us with these simple things that frequently make my life more enjoyable and interesting. 
   It is unfortunate that so many of us simply take such blessings for granted in our daily life.  It is the habit of modern Americans to look after ourselves before looking out for someone else.  It tends to make us a bit self-centered and egotistical, like Donald Trump.  This equally makes us seem alive and yet somehow also dead, like Leonard Cohen.  As a consequence, we fail to express a proper degree of thanks for what we have in life or what we enjoy in life at various times.  It seems a shame to sell ourselves so short by having the arrogance to ignore the virtue of gratitude in our lives. The real trick for me in taking on this personal project will be to continue thinking in those terms after Thanksgiving has come and gone.