Gratitude: n. a feeling of thankfulness
Dear DKOS Friends,
I’m not even sure how I found this amazing cyber village, but you all have saved my sanity, and for that I am deeply thankful. Since it’s nearly Thanksgiving consider this a big card to wish you all a day that I hope is filled with gratitude, grace and friendship.
I remember feeling so lost and voiceless after the 2000 election, but then a feeling of utter despair settled in after 9/11. I waited for a strong leader to come forward, but we didn’t have one. I remember how long it took for me to consider the sound of an airplane overhead just another normal sound, how I poured through the New York Times during the months following the attack, reading the stories of the men and women who had lost their lives, how listening to Scott Simon reading from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself brought me to uncontrollable tears.
It’s hard to believe that things could have deteriorated beyond this sorry time in our country, but it did. I wanted to share thoughts and feelings with others around me, but it was almost impossible to find anyone for whom it was just enough to fly an American flag out their SUV window. I teach in a middle school, where I thought teachers (of all people) would want to discuss what was happening. But I found out that most, not all, of my colleagues preferred to go about the day pretending that everything was business as usual. Aside from my immediate family I began to think it was just a problem I need to “get over”.
And that’s when I found DKOS...diaries that made me laugh out loud, made my blood boil, gave me food for thought, and actual recipes from the troll comments, and, yes, an outlet for me to write my first diary right after our son told us he is gay. You listened so generously and posted your own diaries with advice, but most of all kindness.
I have come a long way from the days of trying to figure out just how to make a blockquote work. And what a troll rating is. And what LOL and IMHO mean. I’m still not the prolific writer I wish I was, but I am grateful for those who are. Each of you, in your own way, has made it easier for me to maneuver in these crazy times. And I thank you all...
Happy Thanksgiving Kossacks!