With Thanksgiving on our doorstep, a few things to be thankful for

[Christa]

As the festival of mandatory gratitude looms into view, allow me to offer a few suggestions on what, exactly, you should be thankful for.


Be thankful that, on at least one occasion, your mother did not fend off your father with a pair of nunchucks, but instead allowed enough contact to facilitate your happy conception. Be thankful that when you go to buy a pale, poultrylike entity, the grocery clerk will accept your credit card in good faith and even return it with a heroic garble of your last name. Be grateful for the empathetic employee working the United Airlines ticket counter the day after Thanksgiving, who understands why you must leave town today, this very minute, lest someone pull out the family nunchucks.

Above all, be thankful for your brain’s supply of oxytocin, the small, celebrated peptide hormone that, by the looks of it, helps lubricate our every prosocial exchange, the thousands of acts of kindness, kind-of kindness and not-as-nakedly-venal-as-I-could-have-been kindness that make human society possible. Scientists have long known that the hormone plays essential physiological roles during birth and lactation, and animal studies have shown that oxytocin can influence behavior too, prompting voles to cuddle up with their mates, for example, or to clean and comfort their pups. Now a raft of new research in humans suggests that oxytocin underlies the twin emotional pillars of civilized life, our capacity to feel empathy and trust.

Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/science/24angier.html?_r=1&ref=science







♫

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. LOL! Thank you. I am grateful and thankful for these things:

(1) That I don't have any Repugnicans as neighbors
(2) That I don't have termites
(3) That a plague of locusts has not attacked my town

[unpossibles]

4. a bit redundant, but a good list to be thankful for. :) nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. I know. I'm sorry it was redundant. ;-) Next time I'll just say...

I'm thankful I don't have insects in my vicinity. lol

[optimator]

2. we need to treat oxytocin deficiency (conservatism)

this should be considered a mental disorder and disqualification from any position of power

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. I am thankful that * is no longer president.

And thankful for Keith, Rachel, Ed, Thom, Stephanie, and other truth tellers who are finally adding a bit of balance to the overwhelming right wing noise machine

Mostly - thankful for my wife (best friend for 30 years), two daughters (just joyous beings who take whatever life dishes them - and it has dished plenty to each of them), two wondrous chocolate labs (kind of like four legged happy pills!) and even our cat.

And thankful to have found a consulting gig after getting bounced from a 24 year professional career....so we can keep our heads above water.

Oh yeah - thankful for DU - the mods, the members, my daily sanity check and info source for truthiness!

[Christa]

6. I am also thankful for DU

as an immigrant I feel you guys are my tribe, my family, my friends, my support system.


:grouphug: