Be Thankful!

Be Thankful

Thanksgiving is approaching quickly, and it’s appropriate to reflect on what we have to be thankful for. Our country was started only a couple of hundred years ago, and we sit on the top of the most successful society in world history. What is it that has made the United States of America great? In a word, it’s freedom.

We have the freest country in the world, both at this point in history and at any point in history. So take a moment to be thankful for the freedoms that we enjoy as Americans. Our unparalleled religious freedoms and freedoms of political expression are such an expected part of our lives that we forget how rare this is in the rest of the world. But beyond the obvious, consider our freedom to rise in financial status. There are countries where it could take a family generations to raise their standard of living, but in America you can go from nothing to stupendous wealth in the reach of your own lifetime. Don’t believe me? Ask Larry Page and Sergey Brin – the founders of Google. 15 years ago, nobody knew who they were. Today they are worth 12 billion dollars apiece! And they are both in their 30s! No society in history has had that kind of social mobility.

I’m thankful for astonishing technology available to ordinary guys like me. I’ve got a video blog at JohnPollock.tv that wasn’t possible 10 years ago. I couldn’t have afforded the camera! And there was no venue that would want to show the video, even if I could. Are you as thankful for the Internet as I am? Think of the business opportunities – consider that next year’s millionaires will be making money from products that haven’t even been considered yet, but will become completely indispensable as soon as they hit the market.

It’s tempting to be discouraged by the tumultuous world we live in – I’m sure many of you take the occasional break from fretting over your profile to fret instead over the news of the day. But there’s another chance to be thankful. World events are scary, but exciting! The people of the world are continuing to live out the ongoing drama of making our world a better place. You should be part of it! I know life can be messy, but still, this is the greatest time to be living in the greatest country on Earth.

Isn’t that a good reason to be thankful? Happy Thanksgiving!

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